The evolution of culture, and other essays

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THE

EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

AND OTHER ESSAYS

BY THE LATE

LT.-GEN. A. LANE-FOX PITT-RIVERS

D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A.

EDITED BY J. L. MYRES, M.A.

STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

HENRY BALFOUR, M.A.

FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE^ OXFORD
CURATOR OF THE PITT-RIVERS MUSEUM

TWENTY-ONE PLATES

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1906

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH

NEW YORK AND TORONTO

12.1H2

PKEFACE

These Essays, or rather Lectures, contain the first-fruits of the
earliest systematic attempt to apply the theory of Evolution to
the products of human handiwork. In their original form they
have long been difficult to obtain ; and they are reprinted now
to supply the needs of candidates for the Oxford Diploma in
Anthropology, and of the numerous visitors to the Pitt-Bivers
Museum in Oxford. But they will certainly appeal to a far
wider public also, as a brief and authentic statement of their
author's discoveries.

The four Essays are reprinted substantially as they were first
delivered and published. But verbal errors and actual mis-
quotations have been corrected; and allusions to specimens or
diagrams exhibited during the original discourses, but not pub-
lished, have been replaced so far as possible by references to
similar objects figured in the Plates.

The Plates are photographic reproductions of the original
illustrations, with the exception of Plates V, XIII, XVII, XVIII.
Of these, Plate XIII has simply been re-drawn, from a faded
original ; Plates XVII and XVIII have been translated, without
loss of detail, from colours to monochrome shading ; Plate V has
been reconstituted from illustrations quoted in the text, with the
permission of their publisher, Mr. Murray. Plate XXI is repro-
duced, by permission of Sir John Evans, from the paper which it
illustrated originally.

The footnotes demand a word of explanation. The author, as
the original publications show, was not precise in indicating his
sources : he frequently gave, as a quotation, the general sense
rather than the exact words of his authority; and occasionally
his memory played him false. In the reprint, the precise
references have been identified, and are given in full, and
obvious errors in the text have been either amended or corrected
in a footnote. The editor desires to acknowledge much valuable
help in the search for references from Miss C. M. Prior, of
Headington.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE . . . iii

INTRODUCTION ........ v

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION (1874) . . . 1

ON THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE (1875) . . . 20
"With Plates I — V, and XXI

PRIMITIVE WARFARE. I (1867) 45

With Plates VI— XI

PRIMITIVE WARFARE. II (1868) . . . . .89
With Plates XII— XVI

PRIMITIVE WARFARE. Ill (1869) . . . .144

With Plates XVII— XX

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION (1874) . . .186

INTRODUCTION *

It was about the middle of last century that an officer in Her
Majesty's Army began to apply the lessons which he had learnt
in the course of some of his professional experimental work to
studies pursued by him as a hobby in a far wider field of science.
The story of the famous ethnographical collection of Colonel
Lane Fox is well known, and I need but briefly refer to it.
During his investigations, conducted with a view to ascertaining
the best methods whereby the service firearms might be im-
proved, at a time when the old Tower musket was being finally
discarded, he was forcibly struck by the extremely gradual
changes whereby improvements were effected. He observed
that every noteworthy advancement in the efficiency, not only
of the whole weapon, but also of every individual detail in its
structure, was arrived at as a cumulative result of a succession
of very slight modifications, each of which was but a trifling
improvement upon the one immediately preceding it. Through
noticing the unfailing regularity of this process of gradual
evolution in the case of firearms, he was led to believe that the
same principles must probably govern the development of the
other arts, appliances, and ideas of mankind. With character-*
istic energy and scientific zeal Colonel Lane Fox began at once,
in the year 1851, to illustrate his views and to put them to
a practical test. He forthwith commenced to make the ethno-
logical collection with which his name will always be associated,
and which rapidly grew to large proportions under his keen
search for material which should illustrate and perhaps prove his
theory of progress by evolution in the arts of mankind.

Although as a collector he was omnivorous, since every
artefact product fell strictly within his range of inquiry, his
collection,- nevertheless, differed from the greater number of

1 Extracted from Mr. Henry Balfour's address to the Anthropological
Section of the British Association at Cambridge in 1904.

vi INTRODUCTION

private ethnological collections, and even public ones of that
day, inasmuch as it was built up systematically with a definite
object in view. It is unnecessary for me to describe in detail
the system which he adopted in arranging his collection. His
principles are well known to ethnologists, either from the collec-
tion itself or from his writings, more especially from the series
of lectures which he gave at the Royal United Service
Institution, in the years 1867-9, upon l Primitive Warfare';
from his paper read before the Anthropological Institute in 1874
on c The Principles of Classification, as adopted in the arrange-
ment of his Anthropological Collection \ which was then
exhibited at the Bethnal Green Museum ; from that portion of
the catalogue raisonne of his collection which was published in
1877; and from numerous other papers dealing with special
illustrations of his theory. Suffice it to say that, in classifying
his ethnological material, he adopted a principal system of groups
into which objects of like form or function from all over the
world were associated to form series, each of which illustrated
as completely as possible the varieties under which a given art,
industry, or appliance occurred. Within these main groups
objects belonging to the same region were usually associated
together in local sub-groups. And wherever amongst the imple-
ments or other objects exhibited in a given series there seemed
to be suggested a sequence of ideas, shedding light upon the
probable stages in the evolution of this particular class, these
objects were specially brought into juxtaposition. This special
grouping to illustrate sequence was particularly applied to objects
from the same region as being, from their local relationships,
calculated better to illustrate an actual continuity. As far as
possible the seemingly more primitive and generalized forms —
those simple types which usually approach most nearly to natural
forms, or whose use is associated with primitive ideas — were
placed at the beginning of each series, and the more complex
and specialized forms were arranged towards the end.

The primary object of this method of classification by series
was to demonstrate, either actually or hypothetically, the origin,
development, and continuity of the material arts, and to illustrate
the variations whereby the more complex and specialized forms
belonging to the higher conditions of culture have been evolved

INTRODUCTION vii

by successive slight improvements from the simple, rudimentary,
and generalized forms of a primitive culture.

The earlier stages in these sequence series were more especially
the object of investigation, the later developments being in the
greater number of cases omitted or merely suggested. It was
necessary for Colonel Lane Fox to restrict the extent of the
series, any one of which, if developed to the full extent, would
easily have filled a good-sized museum. The earlier stages,
moreover, were less familiar, and presented fewer complications.
The general principles of his theory were as adequately demon-
strated by the ruder appliances of uncivilized races as by the
more elaborate products of peoples of higher culture ; and, more-
over, there was doubtless a great attraction in attacking that
end of the development series which offered a prospect at least
of finality, inasmuch as there was always a chance of discovering
the absolute origin of a given series. Hence the major part of
his collection consisted of specimens procured from savage and
barbaric races, amongst whom the more rudimentary forms of
appliances are for the most part to be found.

The validity of the general views of Colonel Lane Fox as to
evolution in the material arts of Man was rapidly accepted by
a large number of ethnologists and others, who were convinced
by the arguments offered and the very striking evidence dis-
played in their support. I have heard people object to the use
of the term f evolution ' in connexion with the development of
human arts. To me the word appears to be eminently appro-
priate, and I think it would be exceedingly difficult to find one
which better expresses the succession of extremely minute varia-
tions by means of which progress has been effected. That the
successive individual units of improvement, which when linked
together form the chain of advancement, are exceedingly small
is a fact which any one can prove for himself if he will study in
detail the growth of a modern so-called ' invention '. One reason
why we are apt to overlook the greater number of stages in the
growth of still living arts is that we are not as a rule privileged
to watch behind the scenes. Of the numberless slight modifi-
cations, each but a trifling advance upon the last, it is but
comparatively few which ever meet the eye of the public, which
only sees the more important stages; those, that is to say.

viii INTRODUCTION

which present a sufficiently distinct advance upon that which
has hitherto been in use to warrant their attracting attention,
or, shall we say, having for a time a marketable value. The
bulk of the links in the evolutionary chain disappear almost as
soon as they are made, and are known to few, perhaps none,
besides their inventors. Even where the history of some
invention is recorded with the utmost care it is only the more
prominent landmarks which receive notice ; the multitude of
trifling variations which have led up to them are not referred
to, for, even if they be known, space forbids such elaborately
detailed record. The smaller variations are, for the most part,
utterly forgotten, their ephemeral existence and their slight
individual influence upon the general progress being unrecorded
at the time, and lost sight of almost at once. The immediately
succeeding stage claims for the moment the attention, and it
again in its turn becomes the stepping-stone upon which the
next raises itself, and so on.

Before proceeding further, let me give as briefly as I can an
example of a development series worked out, in the main, upon
the general line of inquiry inaugurated by Colonel Lane Fox.
It is commonly accepted as a fact, which is borne out by
tradition, both ancient and modern, that certain groups of
stringed instruments of music must be referred for their origin
to the bow of the archer. The actual historical record does not
help us to come to a definite conclusion on this point, nor does
the direct testimony of archaeology ; but from other sources very-
suggestive evidence is forthcoming. A comparative study of
the musical instruments of modern savage and barbaric peoples
makes it very clear to one that the greater portion of the
probable chain of sequences which led from the simple bows
to highly specialized instruments of the harp family may be
reconstructed from types still existing in use among living
peoples, most of the well-defined early stages being represented
in Africa at the present day1. The native of Damaraland, who
possesses no stringed instrument proper, is in the habit of
temporarily converting his ordinary shooting-bow into a musical
instrument. For this purpose he ties a small thong loopwise

1 The Natural History of the Musical Bow, by H. Balfour : Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1899.

INTRODUCTION ix

round the bow and bow-string-, so as to divide the latter into
two vibrating- parts of unequal length. When lightly struck
with a small stick the tense string- emits a couple of notes,
which satisfy this primitive musician's humble cravings for
purely rhythmic sound. Amongst many other African tribes
we find a slight advance, in the form of special, rather slightly
made bows constructed and used for musical purposes only.
In order to increase the volume of sound, it is frequently the
custom amongst some of the tribes to rest the bow against
some hollow, resonant body, such as an inverted pot or hollow
gourd. In many parts again, we find that the instrument has
been further improved by attacking a gourd to the bow, and
thus providing it with a permanent resonating body. To achieve
greater musical results, it would appear that somewhere in
Africa (in the West, I suspect) two or more small bows were
attached to a single gourd. I have, so far, been unable to trace
this particular link in Africa itself, but, curiously enough, this
very form has been obtained from Guiana. It may be thought
that I am applying a breaking strain to the chain of evidence
when I endeavour to work an instrument from South America
into an African developmental series. But, when we recall the
fact that evidence of the existence of indigenous stringed instru-
ments of music in the New World has yet to be produced,
coupled with the certain knowledge that a considerable number
of varieties of musical instruments, stringed and otherwise,
accompanied the enforced migration of African natives during
the days of the slave trade, and were thus established in use
and perpetuated in many parts of the New World, including
the north-east regions of South America, we may, I think,
admit, with some confidence, that, in this particular instance, from
Guiana to Guinea is no very far cry, and that the more than
probable African origin of this instrument from South America
gives it a perfect claim to take its place in the African sequence.
I still anticipate that this type of instrument will be forth-
coming from some hinterland region in West Africa. Were no
evidence at all forthcoming of such a form, either in past or
present, we should be almost compelled to infer that such a one
had existed, as this stage in the sequence appears to be necessary
to prevent a break in the continuity of forms leading to what is

viii INTRODUCTION

which present a sufficiently distinct advance upon that which
has hitherto been in use to warrant their attracting attention,
or, shall we say, having- for a time a marketable value. The
bulk of the links in the evolutionary chain disappear almost as
soon as they are made, and are known to few, perhaps none,
besides their inventors. Even where the history of some
invention is recorded with the utmost care it is only the more
prominent landmarks which receive notice ; the multitude of
trifling variations which have led up to them are not referred
to, for, even if they be known, space forbids such elaborately
detailed record. The smaller variations are, for the most part,
utterly forgotten, their ephemeral existence and their slight
individual influence upon the general progress being unrecorded
at the time, and lost sight of almost at once. The immediately
succeeding stage claims for the moment the attention, and it
again in its turn becomes the stepping-stone upon which the
next raises itself, and so on.

Before proceeding further, let me give as briefly as I can an
example of a development series worked out, in the main, upon
the general line of inquiry inaugurated by Colonel Lane Fox.
It is commonly accepted as a fact, which is borne out by
tradition, both ancient and modern, that certain groups of
stringed instruments of music must be referred for their origin
to the bow of the archer. The actual historical record does not
help us to come to a definite conclusion on this point, nor does
the direct testimony of archaeology ; but from other sources very
suggestive evidence is forthcoming. A comparative study of
the musical instruments of modern savage and barbaric peoples
makes it very clear to one that the greater portion of the
probable chain of sequences which led from the simple bows
to highly specialized instruments of the harp family may be
reconstructed from types still existing in use among living
peoples, most of the well-defined early stages being represented
in Africa at the present day1. The native of Damaraland, who
possesses no stringed instrument proper, is in the habit of
temporarily converting his ordinary shooting-bow into a musical
instrument. For this purpose he ties a small thong loopwise

1 The Natural History of the Musical Bow, by H. Balfour : Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1899.

INTRODUCTION ix

round the bow and bow-string-, so as to divide the latter into
two vibrating parts of unequal length. When lightly struck
with a small stick the tense string emits a couple of notes,
which satisfy this primitive musician's humble cravings for
purely rhythmic sound. Amongst many other African tribes
we find a slight advance, in the form of special, rather slightly
made bows constructed and used for musical purposes only.
In order to increase the volume of sound, it is frequently the
custom amongst some of the tribes to rest the bow against
some hollow, resonant body, such as an inverted pot or hollow
gourd. In many parts again, we find that the instrument has
been further improved by attaching a gourd to the bow, and
thus providing it with a permanent resonating body. To achieve
greater musical results, it would appear that somewhere in
Africa (in the West, I suspect) two or more small bows were
attached to a single gourd. I have, so far, been unable to trace
this particular link in Africa itself, but, curiously enough, this
very form has been obtained from Guiana. It may be thought
that I am applying a breaking strain to the chain of evidence
when I endeavour to work an instrument from South America
into an African developmental series. But, when we recall the
fact that evidence of the existence of indigenous stringed instru-
ments of music in the New World has yet to be produced,
coupled with the certain knowledge that a considerable number
of varieties of musical instruments, stringed and otherwise,
accompanied the enforced migration of African natives during
the days of the slave trade, and were thus established in use
and perpetuated in many parts of the New World, including
the north-east regions of South America, we may, I think,
admit, with some confidence, that, in this particular instance, from
Guiana to Guinea is no very far cry, and that the more than
probable African origin of this instrument from South America
gives it a perfect claim to take its place in the African sequence.
I still anticipate that this type of instrument will be forth-
coming from some hinterland region in West Africa. Were no
evidence at all forthcoming of such a form, either in past or
present, we should be almost compelled to infer that such a one
had existed, as this stage in the sequence appears to be necessary
to prevent a break in the continuity of forms leading to what is

x INTRODUCTION

apparently the next important stage, represented by a type of
instrument common in West Africa, having five little bows,
each carrying its string, all of which are fixed by their lower
ends into a box-like wooden resonator. This method of attach-
ing the bows to the now improved body of the instrument
necessitates the lower attachment of the strings being trans-
ferred from the bows to the body, so that the bow-like form
begins to disappear. The next improvement, of which there
is evidence from existing types, consists in the substitution of
a single, stouter, curved rod for the five little ' bows ', all the five
strings being serially attached to the upper end of the rod,
their lower ends to the body as before. This instrument is
somewhat rare now, and it may well be a source of wonder to us
that it has survived at all (unless it be to assist the ethnologist),
since it is an almost aggressively inefficient form, owing to the
row of strings being brought into two different places at right
angles to one another. The structure of this rude instrument
gives it a quaintly composite appearance, suggesting that it
is a banjo at one end and a harp at the other. This is due to
the strings remaining, as in the preceding form, attached to
the resonating body in a line disposed transversely, while the
substitution of a single rod for the five c bows ' has necessitated
the disposal of their upper attachments in a longitudinal series
as regards the longer axis of the instrument. Inefficient though
it be, this instrument occupies an important position in the
apparent chain of evolution, leading on as it does through some
intermediate types to a form in which the difficulty as regards
the strings is overcome by attaching their lower ends in
a longitudinal series, and so bringing them into the same
plane throughout their length. In this shape the instrument
has assumed a harp-like form — a rude and not very effective
one, it is true, but it is none the less definitely a member of
the harp family. The modern varieties of this type extend
across Africa from west to east, and the harps of ancient
Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and India were assuredly elaborations
of this primitive form. The Indian form, closely resembling
that of ancient Egypt, still survives in Burma, while elsewhere
we find a few apparently allied forms. In all these forms of
the harp, from the rudest Central and West African types to

INTRODUCTION xi

the highly ornate and many- stringed examples of Egypt and
the East, one point is especially noteworthy. This is the
invariable absence of the fore-pillar, which in the modern harps
of Western Europe is so important, nay, essential a structural
feature. In spite of the skill and care exercised in the con-
struction of some of the more elaborate forms, none were fitted
with a fore-pillar, the result being that the frame across which
the strings were stretched was always weak and disposed to
yield more or less to the strain caused by the tension of the
strings. This implied that, even when the strings were not
unduly strained, the tightening up of one of them to raise its
pitch necessarily caused a greater or less slackening of all the
other strings, since the free end of the rod or fneckJ would
tend to be drawn slightly towards the body of the instrument
under the increased tension. The mere addition of a simple,
strut-like support between the free end of the 'neck' and the
' body ' would have obviated this difficulty and rendered the
instrument relatively efficient and unyielding to varying tension.
And yet, even in Western Europe, this seemingly obvious and
invaluable addition did not appear, as far as I can ascertain,
until about the seventh or eighth century a.d. ; and even then
it seems to have been added somewhat half-heartedly, and
a very long time had yet to elapse before the fore-pillar became
an integral part of the framework and was allotted its due
proportion in the general design.

I have purposely selected this particular series for my illus-
tration, not because it is something new — indeed, it is already
more or less familiar, and, maybe, has even some merit in its
lack of newness, since, in accordance with a popular dictum,
it may urge a greater claim to be regarded as true — nor because
it is specially striking, but rather for the reason that it
illustrates suitably several of the points upon which I wish
briefly to touch. Even in the severely condensed form in which
I have been obliged to present this series of developments from
bow to harp, there is, I think, demonstrated the practical
application of several of the general principles upon which is
based the theory whereby Colonel Lane Fox sought to elucidate
the phenomena of human progress.

A series of this kind serves, in the first place, to demonstrate

xii INTRODUCTION

that the absence of historical and archaeological evidence of
the actual continuity in development from simple to complex
does not preclude investigations into the early history of any
product of human ingenuity, nor prevent the formation of
a suggestive and plausible if largely hypothetical series, illus-
trating the probable chain of sequences along which some highly
specialized form may be traced back link by link to its rudi-
mentary prototypes, or even to its absolute origin, which in
this particular instance is the ordinary shooting bow temporarily
converted into a musical instrument. Where an actual chrono-
logical series is not forthcoming, a comparative study of such
types as are available, even though they be modern examples,
reveals the fact that, if classified according to their apparent
morphological affinities, these types show a tendency to fall into
line ; the gap between the extreme forms — that is, the most
simple and the most advanced — being filled by a succession of
intermediate forms, more or less completely linked together,
according to the number of varieties at our disposal. We are
thus, at any rate, in possession of a sequence series. Is it
unreasonable for us to conclude that this reflects, in great
measure, the actual chronological sequence of variations through
which in past times the evolutionary history of the instrument
was effected, from the earliest rudimentary form ?

It is difficult to account, at all, for the existence of many
of the forms, such as I have briefly described, except on the
supposition that they are survivals from more or less early
stages in a series of progressive evolution ; and, for myself,
I do not believe that so inefficient and yet so elaborate an
instrument, as, to take an example, the harp of ancient Egypt,
Assyria, and India, could have come into being by any sudden
inventive process, by 'spontaneous generation-', as it were, to
use a biological term ; whereas, the innate conservatism of
the human species, which is most manifest among the lower
and more primitive races (I use the term conservatism, I need
hardly say, in a non-political sense), amply accounts for such
forms having been arrived at, since the rigid adherence to
traditional types is a prevailing characteristic of human culture,
and only admits of improvement by very slight and gradual
variations upon existing forms. The difficulty experienced by

INTRODUCTION xiii

man, in a primitive condition of culture, of emancipating
himself from the ideas which have been handed down to him,
except by a very gradual and lengthy process, causes him to
exert somewhat blindly his efforts in the direction of progress,
and often prevents his seeing very obvious improvements, even
when they are seemingly forced upon his notice. For instance,
the early Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek harps, as I have
already stated, were destitute of a fore-pillar, and this remained
the case for centuries, in spite of their actually existing in an
environment of other instruments, such as the lyre and trigonon,
which in their rigid, unyielding frames possessed, and even
paraded, the very feature which was so essential to the
harp, to enable it to become a really efficient instrument. The
same j uxtaposition of similar types, without mutual influence,
may be seen in modern Africa among ruder forms of these
instruments.

And yet, in spite of instances such as this — where a valuable
feature suggested by one instrument has not been adopted for
the improvement of another, even though the two forms are in
constant use side by side — we must recognize that progress, in
the main, is effected by a process of bringing the experience
gained in one direction to bear upon the results arrived at in
another. This process of grafting one idea upon another, or,
as we may call it, the hybridization of ideas and experience,
is a factor in the advancement of culture whose influence
cannot be overestimated. It is, in fact, the main secret of
progress. In the animal world hybridization is liable to
produce sterile offspring ; in the world of ideas its results are
usually far different. A fresh stimulus is imparted, which may
last through generations of fruitful descendants. The rate at
which progress is effected increases steadily with the growth
of experience, whereby the number of ideas which may act and
react upon one another is augmented.

It follows, as a corollary, that he who would trace out the
phylogenetic history of any product of human industry will
speedily discover that, if he aims at doing so in detail, he must
be prepared for disappointments. The tangle is too involved
to be completely unravelled. The sequence, strictly speaking,
is not in the form of a simple chain, but rather in that of

xiv INTRODUCTION

a highly complex system of chains. The time-honoured simile
afforded by a river perhaps supplies the truest comparison. The
course of the main stream of our evolution series may be fairly
clear to us, even as far as to its principal source ; we may even
explore and study the general effect produced by the more
important tributaries; but to investigate in detail the contri-
butions afforded in present and past of the innumerable smaller
streams, brooks, and runlets is clearly beyond any one's power,
even supposing that the greater number had not changed their
course at times, and even, in many cases, run dry. While we
readily admit that important effects have been produced by
these numberless tributary influences, both on the course and
on the volume of the river, it is clear that we must in general
be content to follow the main stream. A careful study of the
series of musical instruments, of which I gave but a scanty
outline, reveals very clearly that numberless ideas borrowed from
outside sources have been requisitioned, and have affected the
course of development. In some cases one can see fairly clearly
whence these ideas were derived, and even trace back in part
their own phylogenetic history ; but a complete analysis must
of necessity remain beyond our powers and even our hopes.

It will have been observed that, in the example of a sequence
series which I have given, the early developmental stages are
illustrated entirely by instruments belonging to modern, savage
races. It was a fundamental principle in the general theory of
Colonel Lane Fox that in the arts and customs of the still
living savage and barbaric peoples there are reflected to a
considerable extent the various strata of human culture in the
past, and that it is possible to reconstruct in some degree the
life and industries of Man in prehistoric times by a study of
existing races in corresponding stages of civilization. His
insistence upon the importance of bringing together and com-
paring the archaeological and ethnological material, in order
that each might serve to throw light upon the other, has proved
of value to both sciences. Himself a brilliant and far-seeing
archaeologist as well as ethnologist, he was eminently capable
of forming a conclusion upon this point, and he urged this
view very strongly.

The Earth, as we know, is peopled with races of the most

INTRODUCTION xv

heterogeneous description, races in all stages of culture. Colonel
Lane Fox argued that, making due allowance for possible
instances of degradation from a higher condition, this hetero-
geneity could readily be explained by assuming that, while the
progress of some races has received relatively little check,
the culture development of other races has been retarded to
a greater or less extent, and that we may see represented
conditions of at least partially arrested development. In other
words, he considered that in the various manifestations of
culture among the less civilized peoples were to be seen more
or less direct survivals from the earlier stages or strata o£
human evolution; vestiges of ancient conditions which have
fallen out at different points and have been left behind in the
general march of progress.

Taken together, the various living races of Man seem almost
to form a kind of living genealogical tree, as it were, and it
is as an epiphyte upon this tree that the comparative ethnologist
largely thrives; while to the archaeologist it may also prove
a tree of knowledge the fruit of which may be eaten with
benefit rather than risk.

This certainly seems to be a legitimate assumption in a general
way ; but there are numerous factors which should be borne in
mind when we endeavour to. elucidate the past by means of
the present. If the various gradations of culture exhibited by
the condition of living races — the savage, the semi-civilized or
barbaric, and the civilized races — could be regarded as accurately
typifying the successive stages through which the higher forms
of culture have been evolved in the course of the ages; if, in
fact, the different modern races of mankind might be accepted
as so many sections of the human race whose intellectual
development has been arrested or retarded at various definite
stages in the general progression, then we should have, to all
intents and purposes, our genealogical tree in a very perfect
state, and by its means we could reconstruct the past, and study
with ease the steady growth of culture and handicrafts from
the earliest simple germs, reflecting the mental condition of
primaeval man, up to the highest manifestations of the most
cultured races.

These ideal conditions are, however, far from being realized.

xvi INTRODUCTION

Intellectual progress has not advanced along- a single line, but,
in its development, it has branched off in various directions,
in accordance with varying environment; and the tracing of
lines of connexion between different forms of culture, as is
the case with the physical variations, is a matter of intricate
complexity. Migrations, with the attendant climatic changes,
change of food, and, in fact, of general environment, to say
nothing of the crossing of different stocks, transmission of ideas
from one people to another, and other factors, all tend to increase
the tangle.

Although in certain instances savage tribes or races show
obvious signs of having degenerated to some extent from
conditions of a higher culturedom, this cannot be regarded
as the general rule, and we must always bear in mind the
seemingly parodoxical truth that degradation in the culture
of the lower races is often, if not usually, the direct result
of contact with peoples in a far higher state of civilization.

There can, I think, be little doubt that Colonel Lane Fox
was well justified in urging the view that most savage races
are in large measure strictly primitive, survivals from early
conditions, the development of their ideas having from various
causes remained practically stationary during a very considerable
period of time. In the lower, though not degenerate, races
signs of this are not wanting, and while few, possibly none,
can be said to be absolutely in a condition of arrested develop-
ment, their normal progress is at a slow, in most cases at
a very slow, rate.

Perhaps the best example of a truly primitive race existing
in recent times, of which we have any knowledge, was afforded
by the native inhabitants of Tasmania. This race was still
existing fifty years ago, and a few pure-blooded survivors
remained as late as about the year 1870, when the race became
extinct, the benign civilizing influence of enlightened Europeans
having wiped this extremely interesting people off the face of
the earth. The Australians, whom Colonel Lane Fox referred
to as being f the lowest amongst the existing races of the world
of whom we have any accurate knowledge ', are very far in
advance of the Tasmanians, whose lowly state of culture
conformed thoroughly with the characteristics of a truly primitive

INTRODUCTION xvii

race, a survival not only from the Stone Age in general, but
from almost the earliest beginnings of the Stone Age. The
difference between the culture of the Tasmanians and that of
the Australians was far greater than that which exists between
man of the 'River Drift ' period and his Neolithic successors.
The objects of eveiyday use were but slight modifications of
forms suggested by Nature, involving the exercise of merely
the simplest mental processes. The stone implements were of
the rudest manufacture, far inferior in workmanship to those
made by Palaeolithic man ; they were never ground or polished,
never even fitted with handles, but were merely grasped in
the hand. The varieties of implements were very few in
number, each, no doubt, serving a number of purposes, the function
varying with the requirements of the moment. They had no
bows or other appliances for accelerating the flight of missiles,
no pottery, no permanent dwellings ; nor is there any evidence
of a previous knowledge of such products of higher culture.
They seem to represent a race which was isolated very early
from contact with higher races; in fact, before they had
developed more than the merest rudiments of culture — a race
continuing to live under the most primitive conditions, from
which they were never destined to emerge.

Between the Tasmanians, representing in their very low
culture the one extreme, and the most civilized peoples at the
other extreme, lie races exhibiting in a general way intermediate
conditions of advancement or retardation. If we are justified,
as I think we are, in regarding the various grades of culture,
observable among the more lowly of the still existing races of
man, as representing to a considerable extent those vanished
cultures which in their succession formed the different stages
by which civilization emerged gradually from a low state,
it surely becomes a very important duty for us to study with
energy these living illustrations of early human history, in order
that the archaeological record may be supplemented and rendered
more complete. The material for this study is vanishing so
fast with the spread of civilization that opportunities lost now
will never be regained, and already even it is practically
impossible to find native tribes which are wholly uncontaminated
with the products, good or bad, of higher cultures.

xviii INTRODUCTION

The arts o£ living races help to elucidate what is obscure in
those of prehistoric times by the process of reasoning from the
known to the unknown. It is the work of the zoologist which
enables the palaeontologist to reconstruct the forms of extinct
animals from such fragmentary remains as have been preserved,
and it is largely from the results of a comparative study of
living forms and their habitats that he is able, in his descriptions,
to equip the reconstructed types of a past fauna with environ-
ments suited to their structure, and to render more complete
the picture of their mode of life.

In like manner, the work of the ethnologist can throw light
upon the researches of the archaeologist ; through it, broken
sequences may be repaired, at least suggestively, and the
interpretation of the true nature and use of objects of antiquity
may frequently be rendered more sure. Colonel Lane Fox
strongly advocated the application of the reasoning methods of
biology to the study of the origin, phylogeny, and etionomics
of the arts of mankind, and his own collection demonstrated
that the products of human intelligence can conveniently be
classified into families, genera, species, and varieties, and must
be so grouped if their affinities and development are to be
investigated.

It must not be supposed — although some people, through
misapprehension of his methods, jumped at this erroneous con-
clusion— that he was unaware of the danger of possibly mistaking
mere accidental resemblances for morphological affinities, and
that he assumed that because two objects, perhaps from widely
separated regions, appeared more or less identical in form, and
possibly in use, they were necessarily to be considered as members
of one phylogenetic group. On the contrary, in the grouping
of his specimens according to their form and function, he was
anxious to assist as far as possible in throwing light upon the
question of the monogenesis or polygenesis of certain arts and
appliances, and to discover whether they are exotic or indigenous
in the regions in which they are now found, and, in fact, to
distinguish between mere analogies and true homologies. If we
accept the theory of the monogenesis of the human race, as
most of us undoubtedly do, we must be prepared to admit that
there prevails a condition of unity in the tendencies of the

INTRODUCTION xix

human mind to respond in a similar manner to similar stimuli.
Like conditions beget like results; and thus instances of
independent invention of similar objects are liable to arise.
For this very reason, however, the arts and customs belonging
to even widely separated peoples may, though apparently
unrelated, help to elucidate some of the points in each other's
history which remain obscure through lack of the evidence
required to establish local continuity.

I think, moreover, that it will generally be allowed that cases
of ' independent invention ' of similar forms should be considered
to have established their claim to be regarded as such only
after exhaustive inquiry has been made into the possibilities
of the resemblances being due to actual relationship. There
is the alternative method of assuming that, because two like
objects are widely separated geographically, and because
a line of connexion is not immediately obvious, therefore the
resemblance existing between them is fortuitous, or merely
the natural result of similar forms having been produced to
meet similar needs. Premature conclusions in matters of this
kind, though temptingly easy to form, are not in the true
scientific spirit, and act as a check upon careful research,
which, by investigating the case in its various possible aspects,
is able either to prove or disprove what otherwise would be
merely a hasty assumption. The association of similar forms
into the same series has therefore a double significance. On
the one hand, the sequence of related forms is brought out, and
their geographical distribution illustrated, throwing light, not
only upon the evolution of types, but also upon the interchange
of ideas by transference from one people to another, and even
upon the migration of races. On the other hand, instances in
which two or more peoples have arrived independently at similar
results are brought prominently forward, not merely as interesting
coincidences, but also as evidence pointing to the phylogenetic
unity of the human species, as exemplified by the tendency of
human intelligence to evolve independently identical ideas where
the conditions are themselves identical. Polygenesis in his
inventions may probably be regarded as testimony in favour of
the monogenesis of Man.

I have endeavoured in this review to dwell upon some of the

xx INTRODUCTION

main principles laid down by Colonel Lane Fox as a result of
his special researches in the field of Ethnology, and my object
has been twofold. First, to bear witness to the very great
importance of his contribution to the scientific study of the
arts of mankind and the development of culture in general, and
to remind students of Anthropology of the debt which we owe
to him, not only for the results of his very able investigations,
but also for the stimulus which he imparted to research in some
of the branches of this comprehensive science. Secondly, my
object has been to reply to some criticisms offered in regard to
points in the system of classification adopted in arranging his
ethnographical collection. And, since such criticisms as have
reached me have appeared to me to be founded mainly upon
misinterpretation of this system, I have thought that I could
meet them best by some sort of restatement of the principles
involved.

It would be unreasonable to expect that his work should hold
good in all details. The early illustrations of his theories were
to be regarded as tentative rather than dogmatic, and in later
life he recognized that many modifications in matters of detail
were rendered necessary by new facts which had since come to
light. The crystallization of solid facts out of a matrix which
is necessarily partially volatile is a process requiring time.
These minor errors and the fact of our not agreeing with all
his details in no way invalidate the general principles which
he urged, and we need but cast a cursory glance over recent
ethnological literature to see how widely accepted these general
principles are, and how they have formed the bases of, and
furnished the inspiration for, a vast mass of research by
ethnologists of all nations.

HENRY BALFOUR.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

(1874) x

I gladly avail myself of the opportunity that has been
afforded me of explaining the principles of classification that I
have adopted in the arrangement of my collection, in the hopes
that, by offering them to the consideration of anthropologists,
their soundness may be put to the test, and that they may elicit
criticism on the part of those who have devoted their attention
to the subject of primitive culture.

The collection is divided into four parts. The first has refer-
ence to physical anthropology, and consists of a small collection
of typical skulls and hair of races. This part of the collection,
as it relates to a subject that has received a large amount of
attention from anthropologists, and has been frequently treated
by abler hands than mine, I do not propose to enter into. The
remainder of the collection is devoted to objects illustrating the
development of prehistoric and savage culture, and consists of —
Part II. The weapons of existing savages. Part III. Miscel-
laneous arts of modern savages, including pottery and substitutes
for pottery ; modes of navigation, clothing, textile fabrics, and
weaving; personal ornament; realistic art; conventionalized
art ; ornamentation ; tools ; household furniture ; musical instru-
ments ; idols and religious emblems ; specimens of the written
character of races ; horse furniture ; money and substitutes for
money ; fire-arms ; sundry smaller classes of objects, such as
mirrors, spoons, combs, games, and a collection of implements of
modern savages, arranged to illustrate the mode of hafting stone
implements. Part IV refers to the prehistoric series, and con-
sists of specimens of natural forms simulating artificial forms,
for comparison with artificial forms ; a collection of modern

1 A Paper read at a Special Meeting of the Anthropological Institute of
Great Britain and Ireland on July 1, 1874, on the occasion of the opening
of the Anthropological Collection to the public : and published in the Journal
of the Anthropological Institute, iv (1875), pp. 293-308.

2 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

forgeries for comparison with genuine prehistoric implements ;
palaeolithic implements ; neolithic implements ; implements of
bronze, iron, and bone.

The collection does not contain any considerable number of
unique specimens, and has been collected during upwards of
twenty years, not for the purpose of surprising any one, either
by the beauty or value of the objects exhibited, but solely with
a view to instruction. For this purpose ordinary and typical
specimens, rather than rare objects, have been selected and
arranged in sequence, so as to trace, as far as practicable, the
succession of ideas by which the minds of men in a primitive
condition of culture have progressed from the simple to the com-
plex, and from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.

Many ethnological museums exist in this country and else-
where, and therefore, in claiming to have accomplished a useful
purpose in forming this collection, I am bound to endeavour to
show that it performs some function that is not performed by the
majority of the other museums that are to be found. I propose,
therefore, to consider, in the first place, what the defect of an
ethnological museum usually is.

The classification of natural history specimens has long been
a recognized necessity in the arrangement of every museum
which professes to impart useful information, but ethnological
specimens have not generally been thought capable of anything
more than a geographical arrangement. This arises mainly from
sociology not having until recently been recognized as a science,
if indeed it can be said to be so regarded by the public generally
at the present time. Travellers, as a rule, have not yet embraced
the idea, and consequently the specimens in our museums, not
having been systematically collected, cannot be scientifically
arranged. They consist of miscellaneous objects brought home
as reminiscences of travel, or of such as have been most easily
procured by sailors at the seaports. Unlike natural history speci-
mens, which have for years past been selected with a view to
variety, affinity, and sequence, these ethnological curiosities, as
they have been termed, have been chosen without any regard to
their history or psychology, and, although they would be none
the less valuable for having been collected without influence from
the bias of preconceived theories, yet, not being supposed capable

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 3

of any scientific interpretation, they have not been obtained in
sufficient number or variety to render classification possible.

This does not apply with the same force to collections of pre-
historic objects, which during* the last ten or fifteen years
have received better treatment. It is to the arts and implements
of modern savages that my remarks chiefly relate.

Since the year 1852 I have endeavoured to supply this want
by selecting from amongst the commoner class of objects which
have been brought to this country those which appeared to show
connexion of form. Whenever missing links have been found
they have been added to the collection, and the result has been
to establish, however imperfectly, sequence in several series.

The primary arrangement has been by form — that is to say,
that the spears, bows, clubs, and other objects above mentioned,
have each been placed by themselves in distinct classes. Within
each there is a sub-class for special localities, and in each of these
sub-classes, or wherever a connexion of ideas can be traced, the
specimens have been arranged according to their affinities, the
simpler on the left and the successive improvements in line to
the right of them. This arrangement has been varied to suit the
form of the room, or of the screens, or the number of specimens,
but in all cases the object kept in view has been, as far as possible,
to trace the succession of ideas.

This is the distinctive difference between my collection and
most others which I have seen, in which the primary arrangement
has been geographical, that is to say, all the arts of the same
tribe or nation have been placed together in one class, and within
this there may perhaps have been in some cases a sub-class for
special arts or special forms. Both systems have their advantages
and disadvantages. By a geographical or racial arrangement the
general culture of each distinct race is made the prominent
feature of the collection, and it is therefore more strictly ethno-
logical, whereas in the arrangement which I have adopted, the
development of specific ideas and their transmission from one
people to another, or from one locality to another, is made more
apparent, and it is therefore of greater sociological value. Differ-
ent points of interest are brought to light by each, and, in my
judgement, a great National Anthropological Collection, should
we ever possess such a desideratum, can never be considered

B 2

4 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

complete until it embraces two series, arranged upon these
two distinct systems.

Following the orthodox scientific principle of reasoning from
the known to the unknown, I have commenced my descriptive
catalogue with the specimens of the arts of existing savages, and
have employed them, as far as possible, to illustrate the relics of
primaeval men, none of which, except those constructed of the
more imperishable materials, such as flint and stone, have sur-
vived to our time. All the implements of primaeval man that
were of decomposable materials have disappeared, and can be
replaced only in imagination by studying those of his nearest
congener, the modern savage.

This being the system adopted, one of the first points to which
I desire to invite your attention is the question, to what extent
the modern savage truly represents primaeval man, or rather to
what extent may we take the arts of modern savages to represent
those of the first progenitors of our species ?

In order to do this it is necessary to view the question in its
psychological aspects. This I shall touch upon as lightly as pos-
sible, avoiding all technicalities, which in a cursory view of the
matter, might tend to confuse, and confining myself to those parts
of the subject which appear to have a direct bearing on evolution.

It is a matter of common observation that animals act by
instinct, that is to say, that in the construction of their habita-
tions and other arrangements for providing for their wants, they
act intuitively, and apparently without the intervention of reason ;
and that the things which they construct, though often of a more
or less complex character, are usually of a fixed type ; that they
are repeated by nearly all animals of the same kind with but
little variety ; and that within the limited space of time during
which we are able to observe them, they do not appear to be sus-
ceptible of progress, although evidence has been adduced to show
that animals, even in a wild state, do change their habits to
a certain extent with the change of external conditions.

On the other hand, we recognize in many animals the opera-
tion of a reasoning mind. In their efforts to escape, or when
conditions of a novel character are presented to them, they act
in a manner that shows clear evidence of intelligence, although
they show this to a very limited extent as compared with man.

PRINCIPLES OP CLASSIFICATION 5

We also know that habits acquired by animals during- domestica-
tion, or taught them by the exercise of their reasoning faculties,
become instinctive in them, and are inherited in their offspring, as
in the familiar case of the pointer dog. We also know that under
domestication animals lose the instincts acquired in a wild state.

In the human mind we recognize the presence of all these
phenomena, only in a different degree. We are conscious of an
intellectual mind capable of reasoning upon unfamiliar occur-
rences, and of an automaton mind capable of acting intuitively
in certain matters without effort of the will or consciousness.
And we know that habits acquired by the exercise of conscious
reason, by constant habit, become automatic, and then they no
longer require the exercise of conscious reason to direct the
actions, as they did at first ; as, for example, the habit of walk-
ing upright, which the child learns with pain and labour, but in
time performs without conscious effort of the mind. Or the
habit of reading and writing, the learning of which requires
a strong and continuous effort of the intellect, but which in time
becomes so completely automatic that it becomes possible to read
a whole page aloud whilst the intellectual mind is conscious of
being engaged in other things.

We perceive clearly that this automatic action of the brain is
dependent on frequent repetition by the intellectual brain, as in
the familiar case of learning by heart ; and also that the transfer
of the action from the intellectual to the automaton brain — if
indeed there are separate portions of the brain allotted to these
separate functions, as appears probable — is a gradual and not
a sudden process, and that there are intermediate stages in which
an action may be performed partly by direction of the intellect
and partly automatically. This is shown in the case of a person
who, wishing to make an effective speech at a public meeting,
reasons out his address carefully, and then learns it partially by
heart. When the time comes to address the assembly, the
speech having been partly referred to the automaton brain, the
intellect is relieved from action, and, being unoccupied, is apt to
wander and engage itself in other matters that are passing at the
time ; but the automaton brain, being insufficiently prepared to
bear the whole responsibility, is unable to continue, and the in-
tellectual brain, having already started on a journey elsewhere,

6 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

is unable to return quick enough to take up the thread of the
discourse. The result is that the would-be orator breaks down
pitiably in the middle o£ his speech, owing" to his having learnt
his lesson too well for one function of his mind, and not well
enough for the other. The same is seen in many business trans-
actions, which, from frequent repetition, become what is called a
second nature, and in the conduct of which the conscious intel-
lect is partly freed from the control of the actions.

We see also that both automatic and intellectual activity are
inherited in different degrees by different persons. Thus it is a
matter of common observation that there are some persons who
are able to acquire with great facility the power of conversing
upon simple subjects in many different languages, whilst upon
more complex subjects, requiring intellectual effort, they never
acquire the power of conversing in any language. Thus, also, it
is frequently seen that some children show a remarkable aptitude
for learning in their youth. It is said to be a pleasure to educate
them ; everything speedily becomes automatic in them ; great
hopes are entertained of their future prospects ; but they fre-
quently become a grievous disappointment to their parents, who
have built castles in the air upon the strength of their apparent
precocity, whereas an acute observer might have seen that they
had never from the first showed signs of great intellectual capacity.
On the other hand, we hear of dunces who are the despair of their
tutors, who can with difficulty be taught to read and write and
spell, but in after years become philosophers and scientists, all
which might have been foretold from the first if the system of
education had been such as to call forth the intellectual powers.

It is not merely that some inherit automatic capacity whilst
in others the capacity is intellectual. There is, without doubt, in
both cases an hereditary capacity for special things. Thus, whilst
some acquire a knowledge of music with facility, others can never
be made to appreciate a note of music, and so with respect to
other arts.

How then are we to account for this innate indifference in the
capacity of individuals, unless by supposing it to be proportioned
to the length of time during which, or the degree of intensity
with which, the ancestors of the individuals have had their minds
occupied in the particular branch of culture for which capacity is

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 7

shown ? Unfortunately the difficulty of tracing the channel of
hereditary transmission stands in the way of obtaining- any cer-
tainty on this point, although the labours of our Vice-President,
Mr. Galton, have already thrown much light on this interesting
subject. But on this assumption, it is easy to account for the
more perfect action of instinct in the lower animals than in men,
when it is considered that the minds of their progenitors must
have been confined to the experience of those particular things
for which instinct is shown, far longer than is the case with
man ; and this brings us to the point which has an important
bearing upon the question before us, viz. that every action
which is now performed by instinct, has at some former period
in the history of the species been the result of conscious
experience.

But, in adopting this theory, it is not necessary to assume that
the ideas themselves have been communicated by hereditary
transmission. The doctrine of innate ideas, exploded by Locke,
I believe, can never again establish itself. What is inherited is
no doubt a certain organization of the nervous system, which, by
repeated use through many generations, aided by natural selec-
tion, has become exquisitely adapted to the recognition of
experience of a particular kind, and which, by the constant
renovation that is going on within the body, has grown in
harmony with those experiences, so that, when the spring is
touched, as it were, the machinery is at once set in motion ; but,
until the necessary external conditions are presented to the mind,
there can be no consciousness of them in the mind. The mind
creates nothing apart from experience ; its function is limited to
building with the materials presented to it through the medium
of the senses. The broader the basis of experience, the more
lofty the superstructure that can be raised upon it. Or, to use
the words of Mr. Herbert Spencer1, 'the supposition that the
inner cohesions are adjusted to the outer persistencies by accumu-
lated experience of these outer persistencies, is in harmony with
all our actual knowledge of mental phenomena. Though in so
far as reflex actions and instincts are concerned, the experience
hypothesis seems insufficient ; yet, its seeming insufficiency occurs
only where the evidence is beyond our reach. Nay, even here,
1 The Principles of Psychology (London, 1881), i.3 pp. 424-6.

8 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

such few facts as we can get, point to the conclusion that auto-
matic physical connexions result from the registration of
experiences continued for numberless generations/ And further
on he says : ' In the progress of life at large, as in the progress
of the individual, the adjustment of inner tendencies to outer
persistencies must begin with the simple and advance to the
complex, seeing that, both within and without, complex relations,
being made up of simple ones, cannot be established before
simple ones have been established/

From the foregoing considerations it follows that, in studying
the evidence of intellectual progress, the phenomena which we
may expect to observe are — firstly, a continuous succession of
ideas ; secondly, that the complexity of the ideas will be in an
increasing ratio in proportion to the time ; and thirdly, that the
tendency to automatic action upon any given set of ideas will be
in proportion to the length of time during which the ancestors of
the individual have exercised their minds in those particular
ideas. Hence it follows, as a corollary to this, that at the present
time the tendency to automatic action will be greater in the
lower animals than in the higher, because the minds of their
progenitors have been exercised in the simple ideas, for which
instinct is shown, for a greater length of time than those of the
higher animals, amongst whom the simpler ideas have, at a com-
paratively recent period in the history of the race, been replaced,
or otherwise modified, by ideas of a more complex character,
which latter have not yet had time to become instinctive. And
this is in accordance with what is practically observed in nature.

Now, in applying these principles to the study of progress in
man, we must expect to find that the phenomena observed will
be in proportion to the spaces of time we have to deal with in
treating of man as compared with animals in general.

Assuming this psychological standard of humanity to have
been at the level at which we find the highest of the lower
animals that exist at the present time, we may suppose primaeval
man to have been so far acquainted with the use of tools as to
be able to employ a stone for the purpose of cracking the shells
of nuts, but incapable of trimming the stone into any form that
would answer his purpose better than that into which it had been
shaped by rolling in a river bed or upon the seashore.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 9

By the repeated use of stones for this and similar purposes, it
would be found that, as Sir John Lubbock has pointed out, they
sometimes split in the hand, and that the sharp edges of the
fractured portions were more serviceable than the stones before
fracture. By constant repetition of the same occurrence, there
would grow up in the mind of the creature an association of
ideas between the fracture of the stone and the saving of labour
effected by the fractured portion, and also a sequence of ideas by
which it would be perceived that the fracture of the stone was
a necessary preliminary to the other, and ultimately, by still con-
tinued repetition, the creature would be led to perform the
motions which had been found effectual in cracking the stone
before applying it to the purposes for which it was to be used.
So also in using the various natural forms of the branches of
trees which fell into his hands, it would be found that par-
ticular forms were of use for particular purposes ; and by constant
repetition there would arise an association of ideas between those
forms and the purposes for which they were useful, and he would
begin to select them for such purposes ; and in proportion to the
length of time during which this association of ideas continued
to exist in the minds of successive generations of the creatures
which we may now begin to call men, would be the tendency on
the part of the offspring to continue to select and use these par-
ticular forms, more or less instinctively — not, indeed, with that
unvarying instinct which in animals arises from the perfect
adaptation of the internal organism to external condition, but
with that modified instinct which assumes the form of & persistent
conservatism.

( The savage,' says Mr. Tylor, ' is firmly, obstinately conserva-
tive. No man appeals with more unhesitating confidence to the
great precedent-makers of the past ; the wisdom of his ancestors
can control against the most obvious evidence of hi sown opinions
and actions.'

In a similar manner mankind would be led to the conception
of many other ideas, but of the majority of them no record
would be preserved ; it is only where the ideas have been asso-
ciated with material forms that any record of them would be
kept in prehistoric times ; and this brings us to what I conceive
to be the object of an anthropological collection — to trace out,

10 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

by means of the only evidence available, the sequence of ideas
by which mankind has advanced from the condition of the lower
animals to that in which we find him at the present time, and
by this means to provide really reliable materials for a philosophy
of progress. We may not be able to find in these objects any
associations that may lead us to form an estimate of the highest
aspirations of the mind at any period of its development, but
their importance to anthropologists consists in their value as
evidence. Affording us as they do the only available evidence of
man in his most primitive condition, they are well worthy of our
attention, in order that by studying their grammar, we may be
able to conjugate their forms.

Yet, although our data are thus limited to the material
arts of mankind, only a small portion of those of prehistoric
races are available for our purpose. As already said, only those
tools and implements which were constructed of durable materials
have remained ; the rest have perished, and we have only the
implements of existing savages by which to judge of them. The
question, therefore, is, to what extent they may be taken as
the representatives of the implements of prehistoric men, seeing
that in point of time they are contemporaneous with the arts of
the most civilized races, and not with those of prehistoric races.

Scattered over the world in various localities are savage races
showing various degrees of culture, some higher and some lower
than others, many of which have now been greatly influenced by
contact with civilized races, but of the majority of which we
have more or less detailed records, dating from the time of their
first discovery by Europeans, when their arts may be regarded as
indigenous, or, at any rate, free from any admixture with the arts
of civilized races.

If these savage races have been degraded from a higher condi-
tion of culture, then, seeing that sequence of ideas is necessary
to the existence of any ideas whatever, we must inevitably find
traces in their arts of those higher arts from which they de-
scended. But if, on the other hand, they have risen from a lower
state, and their present savage condition arises from their having
advanced less rapidly than those races which are now above
them in the social scale, then what are the conditions which we
must expect to find prevailing amongst them ?

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 11

We shall find, firstly, that the forms of their implements, in-
stead of showing* evidence of having- been derived from higher
and more complex forms, will, in proportion to the low state of
their civilization, show evidence of being derived from natural
forms, such as might have been employed by man before he had
learnt the art of modifying- them to his uses ; and secondly, we
shall find that the persistency of the forms is proportioned to the
low state of their culture.

Now this is found to be the case with nearly every race of
savages of whose condition we have any knowledge. Lowest
amongst the existing races of the world of whom we have any
accurate knowledge are the Australians. All their weapons as-
similate to the forms of nature ; all their wooden weapons are
constructed on the grain of the wood, and consequently their
curves are the curves of the branches out of which they were
constructed. In every instance in which I have attempted to
arrange my collection in sequence, so as to trace the higher
forms from natural forms, the weapons of the Australians have
found their place lowest in the scale, because they assimilate most
closely to the natural forms.

Of this many examples may be given. I will not now again
enter into the history of the boomerang, to which I have already
drawn the attention of the Society on former occasions. Those
who wish to see the subject treated in greater detail will find
it discussed in my catalogue of the collection, in which are also
given the authorities for many facts that are mentioned here,
and which the limits of time and space do not enable me to quote
at length. Suffice to say that the whole of the Australian weapons
can be traced by their connecting links to the simple stick, such
as might have been used by an ape or an elephant before man-
kind appeared upon this earth, and I have arranged them so as
to show this connexion on the screens. Here also we are able
to trace the development of the idea of a shield to cover the body,
which in its simplest form is a simple parrying-stick held in the
centre, and which expands gradually into an oval shield. It is
also shown upon the screens how the simple waddy, or club with
a lozenge-shaped head, by a gradual development of one side,
grew into a kind of wooden hatchet, which ultimately became
converted into a hatchet- boomerang.

12 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

The whole of the Australian weapons, without exception, are
of this simple character, and in proof of the persistency with
which this nation has continued to employ the same forms, no fur-
ther evidence is necessary than the fact that they are the same,
with but slight variations, over the whole continent. The slight
differences between them, as Mr. Oldfield has pointed out, are
so minute as scarcely to be perceptible to a European, but suffi-
cient to enable a native to determine at a glance from what
locality any specimen that may be shown him has been obtained.

But although all the connecting forms between the forms of
nature and the more advanced forms are found amongst the
existing weapons of these savages, we are not to assume from this
that the whole of the progress observed has been effected in
modern times. The whole sequence of ideas connecting these
weapons (which are now constructed in a manner to show that the
art of producing them is partly automatic) was reasoned out by
such processes of the mind as stood for reason, at various former
periods in the history of the race, each successive improvement
constituting a link in the chain of progressive development.
Each link has left its representatives, which, with certain modi-
fications, have survived to the present time; and it is by the
means of these survivals, and not by the links themselves, that
we are able to trace out the sequence that has been spoken of.

This is the hypothesis put forward, and which I profess to
justify by the facts accumulated in this collection.

Every form marks its own place in sequence by its relative
complexity or affinity to other allied forms, in the same manner
that every word in the science of language has a place assigned
to it in the order of development or phonetic decay.

If there is such a thing as a science of language, and none can
doubt it, who shall affirm that there is no such thing as a science
of the arts ? Language, it is true, embraces a wider sphere, and
includes the arts ; but, on the other hand, it is liable to sources
of uncertainty for the purposes of science, from which the arts
are free. Language is impalpable, invisible to the eye, except
through the medium of a written character, which may or may
not accurately express the sounds, and subject to acoustic
changes in the collection of the materials, which are a perpetual
cause of error and misclassification.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 13

In tracing- the development of the material arts, on the other
hand, we have, in the earliest periods, the support of collateral
evidence afforded by the fauna with which they are associated
and by geological sequence, all which is wanting* in the science
of language.

Why, then, has language hitherto received more scientific
treatment than the arts? Merely on account of the greater
facility with which the data are collected. Whilst words take
seconds to record, hours and days may be spent in the accurate
delineation of form. Words cost nothing, are packed in folios,
transmitted by post, and stored on the shelves of every private
library. A million classified words may be carried in the coat
pocket without inconvenience, whilst a hundredth part of that
number of material objects require a museum to contain them,
and are accessible only to a few. This is the reason why the
arts have never been subjected to those classifications which form
the groundwork of a science.

Then, again, in approaching prehistoric times, or in studying
modern savages who represent prehistoric man, language loses
its persistency, or fails us altogether. Although, in an advanced
stage of civilization, especially when it has been committed to
writing, it affords the surest test of culture, this is certainly not
the case with the lowest savages, amongst whom language
changes so rapidly that even neighbouring tribes cannot under-
stand one another. And if this is the case in respect to language,
still more strongly does it apply to all ideas that are communi-
cated by word of mouth. In endeavouring to trace back pre-
historic culture to its root forms, we find that in proportion
as the value of language and of the ideas conveyed by language
diminishes, that of ideas embodied in material forms increases
in stability and permanence. Whilst in the earliest phases of
humanity the names for things change with every generation
if not more frequently, the things themselves are handed down
unchanged from father to son and from tribe to tribe, and many
of them have continued to our own time, faithful records of the
condition of the people by whom they were fabricated.

Of the antiquity of savages we at present know little or
nothing ; but when archaeologists have exhausted the antiquities
of civilized countries, a wide and interesting field of research will

14 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

be open to them in the study of the antiquities of savages, which
are doubtless to be discovered in their surface and drift deposits ;
and if the stability of their form has been such as we have reason
to believe, we shall then be able to arrive at something like
certainty in respect to the degree of slowness or rapidity, as well
as the order, in which they have been developed.

Leaving now the Australians, and turning to other existing
races in a higher, though still in a low, stage of civilization, such
as, for example, the Fijians, who at the time of their discovery
were still in the stone age, we find, on examining the forms of
their implements, that we are in a higher stratum of culture, the
characteristics of which correspond exactly to what might have
been expected to be found on the principle of gradual evolution.
The forms of their tools and weapons present the same connexions
of form between themselves as amongst those of the Australians,
but they are of a more complex type, and are no longer directly
traceable to the natural forms of the limbs of trees, &c. The
links of connexion between weapons of the same kind are as close
as before, but in their varieties they present forms so singular as
scarcely to make it possible to infer that they were designed for
the purposes of use. They appear rather to have varied through
the instrumentality of some law of succession similar to that by
which species of animals have been evolved. In many cases,
indeed, the sequence of ideas has led to the use of forms that
are absolutely unserviceable as weapons and tools, and human
selection, corresponding to natural selection, appears to have
retained for use only such forms as could be employed, whilst
the others have been consigned to state purposes or applied to
symbolic uses. In many cases we find that their clubs have
been converted into the forms of animals'' heads, and in all such
eases (and there are several in the collection) we see, by grouping
a sufficient number of like forms together, that those which are
in the shape of animals' heads have not been designed for the
purpose of representing animals' heads, but their forms have
simply been evolved during the numerous variations which the
weapon has undergone in the process of development, and when
the idea of an animal's head suggested itself, it has merely been
necessary to add an eye, or a line for the mouth, in order to give
them the resemblance in question. Examples of this may be

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 15

seen in the collection of specimens from Africa, New Caledonia,
New Zealand, and Solomon Isles.

In ornamentation, the stability of form is very remarkable.
Particular forms of ornamentation fix themselves on a tribe or
nation, and are repeated over and over again with but little vari-
ation of detail, as, for example, in the case of the coil and broken
coil ornaments amongst the New Zealanders and the inhabitants
of New Guinea, which were probably derived from Assam, or
the representation of the head of an albatross amongst the
Indians of the north-west coast of North America, or that of
a human head amongst the inhabitants of New Ireland.

In the transformations of this latter ornament, which I took
occasion to bring to the notice of the meeting of the Anthropo-
logical Department of the British Association at Brighton in
1873 1, and which are represented in Plate IV, we see a re-
markable example of degradation of form, produced by gradual
changes, caused by these people in copying from one another
until the original design is lost. The representation of a human
figure is here seen to lose gradually its limbs and body, then the
sides of the face, leaving only the nose and ears, and ultimately
the nose only, which finally expands at the base, and is converted
into the representation of a half moon. In this sequence we
have an exact parallel to the transformations observed upon
ancient British coins by Mr. Evans2, by which a coin of
Philip of Macedon, representing a chariot and horses, becomes
converted by a succession of similar changes into the repre-
sentation of a single horse, and ultimately into fragments of a
horse. Other examples of similar transformations from other
countries are also shown.

Amongst other advantages of the arrangement by form, is the
facility it affords for tracing the distribution of like forms and
arts, by which means we can determine the connexion that has
existed in former times between distant countries, either by the
spread of race, or culture, or by means of commerce. Thus I
have been able to trace the distribution of the bow over a large
area, with evidence of its having spread from a common centre.

1 Address to the Department of Anthropology — Report of the British
Association, 1872 (London, 1873), p. 168.

2 The Coins of the Ancient Britons, by John Evans, F.R.S. (1864), pp. 24-32.

16 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

In the Asiatic islands and the Pacific, the line of its southern
boundary is very clearly defined, marking" off as non-bow-using
races the whole of the inhabitants of Australia except Cape York,
Tasmania, and formerly New Zealand and New Caledonia.
Above this line the use of the bow spread from the Asiatic isles,
and its transmission to the Papuan and Polynesian isles is due to
the Malays, the Malay word for it — viz. ' panna ' — being used over
the whole of the region in question with but slight variations.

In the southern hemisphere, where suitable materials for the
construction of it are abundant, the bow is of the form of the
arcus, or simple arch ; but in the frigid regions to the north,
there are large tracts in Europe, Asia, and America which are
either totally destitute of trees, or covered with coniferous forests,
yielding few if any woods that have sufficient spring for the
construction of a bow, and there is reason to believe, from the
traces of forests discovered at low levels beneath the soil in
various places, that this inhospitable region extended more to
the southward in ancient prehistoric times. In such a region it
is unlikely that the invention of the bow should have originated,
and when the knowledge of it was communicated from the
south, it would be necessary to employ some other elastic material
to combine with the stiff pinewood, and give it the necessary
elasticity; hence the composite bow, which is the bow of the
northern hemisphere, and which consists of a combination of
wood and sinew, or wood and bone. In its varieties I have
traced this bow over the whole of the northern hemisphere,
including Lapland, Siberia, and the northern part of North
America. It is the bow of the ancient Persians and Scythians.
The northern people carried it into India and into China, and
also eastward into America, where its distribution is traced in
two channels, one extending along the region inhabited by the
Esquimaux into Greenland, and the other along the west coast as
far south as California ; and throughout the region mentioned,
its varieties show it to have sprung from a common prototype.

Here also I may select, from amongst other illustrations of the
same kind that are to be found, a single example of the manner
in which the implements of modern savages may be made to
explain the construction of those of races of antiquity, described
upon their monuments. Quivers for arrows do not admit of

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 17

much variety by which to trace improvement, and for this reason
they must have continued unchanged in form much longer than
contrivances which were susceptible of development; but the
combination of quiver and bow case in one, may be traced over
the whole of the region of the composite bow, the sinews of
which made it necessary that it should be kept dry. Mr.
Rawlinson, in his Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient
Eastern World (London, 1864, vol. ii. p. 57), gives an illustra-
tion of an Assyrian quiver taken from ancient sculptures
at Khorsabad. fIt had an ornamental rod attached to it,
which projected beyond the arrows and terminated in a pome-
granate blossom or other similar carving. To this rod were
attached the rings which received the strap by which it was
suspended to the shoulders/ The learned author adds : f It is
uncertain whether the material of the quivers was wood or metal/
The conventional mode of representing these objects and the
imperfect command which the Assyrians had over the hard stone
of the sculptures, give to the majority of the objects represented,
the appearance of having been constructed of some hard material,
as is clearly seen in the case of the hair and drapery ; but, on
turning to the quivers now used by the Indians of California,
we at once see that the material of the quiver is explained by the
form and position of the above-mentioned rod, which is fastened
on the outside of it for the purpose of keeping the limp skin bag
that contains the arrows stiff and straight, and thereby enabling
the bowman to draw out his arrows with the necessary rapidity.
And this enables us clearly to understand why, as stated by
Mr. Rawlinson, not a single example of a quiver was found in
the Assyrian excavations. In the Californian, as in the Assyrian
quivers, the rod extends beyond the quiver, and is probably in-
tended to guard the arrows from injury.

It is unnecessary in this place to add to the number of
examples. The object of this paper, as already stated, is to
explain the principles of classification. For the evidence on
which these principles are based I must refer you to the catalogue.
Whether these principles of classification are correct or not is
a matter of less consequence than the arrangement of the facts,
by which every person is enabled to form his own idea of the
manner in which progress has been evolved in early times.

18 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION

Human ideas, as represented by the various products of human
industry, are capable of classification into genera, species, and
varieties, in the same manner as the products of the vegetable
and animal kingdoms, and in their development from the homo-
geneous to the heterogeneous they obey the same laws. If,
therefore, we can obtain a sufficient number of objects to repre-
sent the succession of ideas, it will be found that they are capable
of being arranged in museums upon a similar plan.

The resemblance between the arts of modern savages and
those of primaeval man may be compared to that existing be-
tween recent and extinct species of animals. As we find amongst
existing animals and plants, species akin to what geology teaches
us were primitive species, and as among existing species we find
the representatives of successive stages of geological species, so
amongst the arts of existing savages we find forms which, being
adapted to a low condition of culture, have survived from the
earliest times, and also the representatives of many successive
stages through which development has taken place in times past.
As amongst existing animals and plants, these survivals from
different ages give us an outline picture of a succession of
gradually improving species, but do not represent the true
sequence by which improvement has been effected, so, amongst
the arts of existing people in all stages of civilization, we are
able to trace a succession of ideas from the simple to the complex,
but not the true order of development by which those more
complex arrangements have been brought about. As amongst
existing species of animals, innumerable links are wanting to
complete the continuity of structure, so amongst the arts of
existing peoples there are great gaps which can only be filled by
prehistoric arts. What the palaeontologist does for zoology, the
prehistorian does for anthropology. What the study of zoology
does towards explaining the structures of extinct species, the
study of existing savages does towards enabling us to realize
the condition of primaeval man. To continue the simile further,
the propagation of new ideas may be said to correspond to the
propagation of species. New ideas are produced by the corre-
lation of previously existing ideas in the same manner as new
individuals in a breed are produced by the union of previously
existing individuals. And in the same manner as we find that

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION 19

the crossing of animals makes it extremely difficult to trace the
channel of hereditary transmission of qualities in a breed, so
the crossing of ideas in this manner makes it extremely difficult
to trace the sequence of ideas, although we may be certain that
sequence does exist as much in one case as in the other.

Continuing still further the simile, we find that, as in the
breeding of animals, when the divergence of races has gone so
far as to constitute what is called distinct species, they cannot
interbreed, so when the development of ideas has run in distinct
channels far enough to create a hiatus, no intercommunication
can take place. Two men of very different culture may travel in'
the same coach together, and, though speaking the same lan-
guage, may find themselves unable to communicate except upon
commonplace topics in which the simple ideas are common to
both. Or two nations in very different stages of civilization
may be brought side by side, as is the case in many of our
colonies, but there can be no amalgamation between them.
Nothing but the vices and imperfections of the superior culture
can coalesce with the inferior culture without break of sequence.

Progress is like a game of dominoes — like fits on to like. In
neither case can we tell beforehand what will be the ultimate
figure produced by the adhesions; all we know is that the
fundamental rule of the game is sequence.

c 2

ON THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

(1875) 1

If we accept the definition of the term science as ' organized
common sense ', we necessarily reject the idea of it as a c great
medicine ' applicable only to particular subjects and inapplicable
to others ; and we assume that all those things which call forth
the exercise of our common sense are capable of being
scientifically dealt with, according as the knowledge which we
pretend to have about them is based on evidence in the first
place, and in the sequel is applied to the determination of what,
for want of a better word, we call general laws.

But in using this term ' law ' , we do not employ it in the sense
of a human law, as a regulating or governing principle of
anything, but merely as deduction from observed phenomena.
We use it in the sense of a result, rather than a cause of what
we observe, or at most we employ it to express the operation of
proximate causes ; and of the ultimate causes for the phenomena
of nature we know nothing at all.

Further, in this development of the principle of common
sense it has been said that the inductive sciences pass through
three phases, which have been termed the empirical, the
classificatory, and the theoretical.

Of these, the first or empirical stage may be defined as
representing that particular phase of unorganized common sense
in which our knowledge is simply a record of the results of
ordinary experience, such as might be acquired by any savage
or uneducated person in his dealings with external nature.

But as this condition of knowledge might perhaps be denied
the claim to be considered scientific, it might be better perhaps
to extend the term so as to embrace all that can be included
under a practical knowledge of the subjects treated, in which
these subjects are studied for their own sakes, or on account of

1 A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on Friday,
May 28, 1875, and published in Proc. Boy. Inst., vol. vii. pp. 496-520, PI. i-iv.

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 21

their practical uses to man, and not with a view to generalizing
upon them.

In this way it may be said that agriculture represents the
empirical or practical stage of botany ; mining, that of geology ;
hunting and the domestication of animals, that of zoology ; the
trade of the butcher, that of anatomy ; navigation by means of
the stars, that of astronomy.

Passing now over the boundary line which separates what are
generally recognized as the physical sciences from the science of
culture, in which the subjects treated are emanations from the
human mind, we find that these also have their corresponding
phases of development.

Commencing first with the science of language, which has
been the earliest and perhaps the most important branch of
human culture the study of which has been scientifically treated
as yet, we find that Professor Max Miiller, in the series of
lectures delivered in this Institution in 1861-3,1 has shown
that the science of language has its corresponding empirical or
practical stage, in which it is studied only for its own sake,
or for its utility as a means of intercommunication ; not as a
means of generalizing upon language as a whole, but merely for
the purpose of understanding the particular languages which we
wish to make use of in our intercourse with others.

In like manner passing from language to the particular
department of culture which, for the reasons to be explained
hereafter, I shall make the subject of this discourse, viz. the
material arts, I shall endeavour to show that there exists also in
relation to them a practical or empirical stage, which is the
stage that we are now in with respect to them, in which we
may include the whole of the constructive arts of mankind, from
the simple flint knife to the most complex machine of modern
times, when viewed from the standpoint of the mechanic or the
artificer, not as subjects for generalization, but merely from an
utilitarian point of view.

There are many persons no doubt who regard utility, not as

a primary stage, but as the final and highest result of science.

But the highest achievements of science, even the highest

practical achievements, would never have been reached by the

1 Lectures on the Science of Language (London, 1861), i, Lecture 1.

22 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

mere utilitarian. There is a force within us by which we are
moved in the direction of acquiring1 knowledge for its own sake
and for the sake of truth, regardless of any material advantage
to be derived from such knowledge. Sooner or later such
knowledge is sure to bear practical fruits, even though we may
not live to realize them.

It is in this spirit that men of science have advanced to
the second or classificatory stage, in which, with a view to
higher generalization, the subjects studied are grouped together
according to their affinities, and specific points of resemblance
are taken as the representatives of each class.

These classes are at first grouped round independent centres ;
but such an arrangement of them, having no existence in reality,
is purely subjective and can only be transitional. The margins
of the classes so formed represent only the margins of our
knowledge or our ignorance, as the case may be.

By degrees, as the classes become extended, sub-classes are
formed, and they are seen to arrange themselves in the form of
branches radiating from a central stem. By still further observa-
tion, the stems of the several classes are seen to tend towards
each other, and we are led to trace them to a point of union.

Thus from the classificatory or comparative we pass gradually
into the third stage, which I have spoken of as the theoretical,
but which may perhaps be more clearly defined as the
evolutionary. By the use of this term ' evolutionary ' we make
it apparent that our third stage is but a development of the
second, evolution being merely the necessary and inevitable
result of the extension of classification, implying greater unity
and broader generalizations.

These three stages then, the empirical or practical, the
classificatory or comparative, and the evolutionary, are applicable
to the development of all the inductive sciences.

But it has been held by some that a broad line of demarcation
must be drawn between the physical sciences properly so called,
such as zoology, botany, and geology, which deal with external
nature, and those sciences which have been termed historic,
which deal with the works of man.

This question has been ably treated by Professor Max Miiller
in the series of lectures to which I have referred, a course of

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 23

lectures which must be regarded as a starting-point and basis
of instruction for all who follow after him in the same path.

But in claiming for the science of language, and for language
only, a place amongst the physical sciences, he has made
admissions to opponents which, in my humble judgement, ought
not to be made, and which are inconsistent with that more
extended view of the subject by which I contend that, if
language, then all that comes under the head of culture must be
included amongst the physical sciences. Thus, for example, we
find him admitting this passage as a sound and reasonable
argument on the part of those who deny the claim of language'
to be included amongst the physical sciences : ' Physical science/
he says, ' deals with the work of God, historical science with the
works of man/

Now if in dealing with what are here termed the historical
sciences, we were to take the subjects of such sciences, as for
example the arts or language, implements or words, and were to
regard them as entities to be studied apart from their relation
to mind, and were to endeavour to deduce from them the laws
by which they are related to each other, it is evident that we
should be dealing with a matter which could not be correlated
with the physical sciences ; but such a course would be absurd.
It would be as absurd to speak of a boomerang as being derived
by inheritance from a waddy, as to speak of a word in Italian
being derived by inheritance from a corresponding word in
Latin ; these words and these implements are but the outward
signs or symbols of particular ideas in the mind ; and the
sequence, if any, which we observe to connect them together, is
but the outward sign of the succession of ideas in the brain.
It is the mind that we study by means of these symbols.

But of the particular molecular changes or other processes
which accompany the evolution of ideas in the mind, we know
no more than we do of the particular molecular changes and
other processes which accompany the evolution of life in nature,
or the changes in chemistry.

If then we are to understand the expression fthe work of
God' as implying the direct action of ultimate causes, it is
evident that we are not in a position either to affirm or to deny
or to make any statement whatever respecting such ultimate

24 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

causes, which may operate either as directly or as indirectly
in the one case as the other. We know nothing about them,
and therefore to invoke ultimate causes as a reason for
distinguishing between the sciences is to take up a position
which cannot be scientifically maintained.

With equal if not greater truth we may combat the assertion
that the science of culture is historical, whilst nature, on the
other hand, as dealt with by the physical sciences, is incapable
of progress. However valid this objection might have appeared
during the empirical and comparative stages of the physical
sciences, it cannot be maintained, since the researches of Darwin
and others have fairly landed them in their evolutionary phase.
The principles of variation and natural selection have established
a bond of union between the physical and culture sciences which
can never be broken. History is but another term for evolution.
There are histories and histories, as any one may determine who
has read Green's Short History of the English People, and compared it
with the kind of matter which passed for history in his school
days. But our position with regard to culture has always been one
which has forced on our comprehension the reality of progress,
whilst with respect to the slow progress of external nature, it
has been concealed from us, owing to the brief span of human
existence and our imperfect records of the past. The distinction,
therefore, between the sciences, as historical and non-historical,
is but a subjective delusion, and not an objective reality; and
herein, I believe, lies the secret of most of those errors that we
have to contend with.

But the point in which I venture more particularly to differ
from the conclusions of the learned author of the Science of
Language is the line which he has drawn between language and
the other branches of culture by including language amongst
the physical sciences whilst he excludes the rest. ' If language,'
he says, fbe the work of man in the same sense in which
a statue, a temple, a poem, or a law, are properly called works
of man, the science of language would have to be classed as an
historic science'' ; and again he says, 'It is the object of these
lectures to prove that language is not a work of human
art in the same sense as painting, or building, or writing, or
printing/

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 25

In dealing with this question it is material, as regards the
relative claims of language and the arts to be studied as physical
sciences, to distinguish between the general and the particular.
If it is said that language as a whole is not a work of human
design, the same may with equal truth be said of the arts
as a whole. A man who constructs a building, a tool, or a
weapon, can no more be said to have devised a scheme of arts,
than the introducer of a new word can be said to have invented
a language; but each particular word bears the impress of
human design as clearly as a weapon or a coin. A word may be
said to be a tool for the communication of thought, just as
a weapon is an implement of war.

But, says Professor Miiller, ' art, science, philosophy, religion,
all have a history ; language or any other production of nature
admits only of growth/ But unless it can be shown that words
are entities having the power of generating and producing other
words, which arts, tools, or weapons, do not possess, the word
growth can only be applied figuratively to language as it is
to the arts, and in that case growth and history are synonymous
terms. But this is absurd. Words, as I said before, are the
outward signs of ideas in the mind, and this is also the case with
tools or weapons. Words are ideas expressed by sounds, whilst
tools are ideas expressed by Hands ; and unless it can be shown
that there are distinct processes in the mind for language and for
the arts they must be classed together.

But it is said, 'language has the property of progressing
gradually and irresistibly, and the changes in it are completely
beyond the control of the free will of man/ This, however, can
only be accepted relatively. We know that in certain phases of
savage life the use of particular words may be tabooed in the
same manner that the use of particular implements or weapons
may be tabooed; but it would be quite as hopeless for any
individual to attempt to change the entire course of the con-
structive arts as to change the form of a language ; the action of
the individual man is limited in both cases to the production
of particular words or particular implements, which take their
place like bricks in a building.

Man is not the designer in the sense of an architect, but he is
the constructor in the sense of a brickmaker or a bricklayer.

26 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

But the difficulty of tracing fleeting words to their sources
operates to a great extent in effacing the action of the individual
in language. Words become public property before they are
incorporated in a language. It would be difficult to establish
a system of patents for new words. Here again we see that the
line drawn between language and the arts is a subjective delusion,
not an objective reality. It is not true that words do not originate
with individual men, but merely that we do not perceive it.

Modifications of words, like modifications in the forms of the
arts, result from the succession of ideas or other causes affect-
ing particular minds. They obtain acceptance through natural
selection by the survival of the fittest.

The chance which a new word or a new implement has of
surviving depends on the number of words or implements to be
superseded, on their relative importance to the art or the lan-
guage, and the persistency with which these superseded words or
implements are retained. The truth of this is seen in the fact
that vocabularies change far more rapidly than grammatical
forms ; because the same grammatical terminations are employed
with a large number of different words, and they are therefore
a more constant necessity of speech.

Hence early and barbaric languages may be connected by their
grammatical forms long after their vocabularies have entirely
changed. The same truth is seen in the fact admitted by
philologists, that in small communities new words and modifica-
tions of words gain more ready acceptance than in large com-
munities ; because the struggle of the new words for existence is
less in small than in large communities, and the dialects therefore
change more rapidly. And the same causes influence the trans-
formations which take place in the arts. Objects in common use
change more slowly than those which are but little employed ;
the difference is merely one of degree and not of kind.

In dealing with the arts, each separate contrivance occupies
a larger share of our attention, to the exclusion of any com-
prehensive survey of them as a whole. The arts present them-
selves to our mental vision on a larger scale, and we view them
analytically; we are as it were in the brickmaker's yard seeing
each brick turned out of hand, whereas in dealing with language
we see only the finished building ; the details are lost. We view

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 27

language synthetically. The arts may be said to present them-
selves to us as a sea beach in detached fragments ; language in
the form of a compact sandstone. The empiric or the utilitarian
may deny that there is any resemblance between them ; but the
geologist knows that the mode of deposition has been the same
in both cases, and he classes the whole as rocks.

Then again there are facilities for collecting and arranging the
data for the study of language which do not exist in the case of
the arts. Whilst words take seconds to record, hours and days
may be spent in the accurate delineation of form. Words cost
nothing, may be packed in folios, transmitted by post, and stored
on the shelves of every private library. Ten thousand classified
words may be carried in the coat pocket without inconvenience,
whilst a tenth part of that number of material objects require
a museum to contain them, and are accessible only to a few :
this is the reason why the arts have never been subjected to
those classifications which form the groundwork of a science.

But when we say that words and implements are both tools
employed for the expression of thought, it is important to bear
in view one difference between them, which has a practical
bearing on the relative value of the two studies as a means of
tracing the evolution of culture in prehistoric times and amongst
savages. The word is the tool of the ear, the implement the
tool of the eye ; and for this reason language is the science
of historic times, whilst the arts constitute the subject of science
to be studied in relation to prehistoric times.

Every new tool or weapon formed by the hand of man retains
the same form as long as it continues to exist; it may be
handed from man to man, from tribe to tribe, from father to
son, from one generation to another; or, buried in the soil,
it may under special conditions continue for untold ages without
change of form, until in our time it may be discovered and
employed as evidence of the condition of the arts at the time
it was fabricated. Very different, however, is the history of
words. Each word coined by the exercise of the inventive
faculty of man to express an idea is liable to change as it passes
from mouth to ear. Its continued identity is dependent solely
on memory, and it is subject to phonetic and acoustic changes
from which the forms of the arts are exempt.

28 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

"When by the invention of writing- each word receives its equiva-
lent in forms that are appreciable to the sense of sight, it gains
stability, which places it on a footing* of equality with the arts,
and enables us to trace with certainty the changes it has under-
gone ; and therefore in historic times language is the surest test
of social contact that we can have. But in prehistoric times,
before it had acquired this permanence through the invention of
writing, the forms of language were, to use Mr. Sayce's expres-
sion, in a constant state of flux.

The truth of this is seen in the immense number of dialects
and languages employed by savages at the present time. Thus
amongst the one hundred islands occupied by the Melanesian race,
the Bishop of Wellington tells us, and his statement is confirmed
by the late lamented Bishop Patteson, that there are no less than
two hundred languages, differing so much that the tribes can
have but very little interchange of thought ; and similar accounts
are given of rapid changes of language in Cambodia, Siberia,
Central Africa, North, Central, and South America.

The greater stability of the material arts as compared with the
fluctuations in the language of a people in a state of primaeval
savagery, is well shown by a consideration of the weapons of the
Australians, and the names by which they are known in the
several parts of that continent. These people, from the simplicity
of their arts, afford us the only living examples of what we may
presume to have been the characteristics of a primitive people.
Their weapons are the same throughout the continent ; the
shield, the throwing- stick, the spear, the boomerang, and their
other weapons differ only in being thicker, broader, flatter, or
longer, in different localities ; but whether seen on the east or the
west coast, each of these classes of weapons is easily recognized
by its form and uses. On the other hand, amongst the in-
numerable languages and dialects spoken by these people, it
would appear that almost every tribe has a different name for the
same weapon. The narrow parrying-shield, which consists of a
piece of wood with a place for the hand in the centre, in South
Australia goes by the name of c heileman ', in other parts it is
known under thename of 'mulabakka', in Victoria it is 'turnmung',
and on the west coast we have ' murukanye ' and ' tamarang ' for
the same implement very slightly modified in size and form.

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 29

Referring1 to the comparative table of Australian languages com-
piled by the Rev. George Taplin, in the first number of the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute (i, 1872, pp. 84-8), we find
the throwing-stick, which on the Murray River is known by the
name of fyova^ on the Lower Darling is 'yarrumJ, in New
South Wales it is c wommurrur ', in Victoria ' karrick ', on Lake
Alexandrina ftaralye', amongst the Adelaide tribes of South
Australia it is 'midla', in other parts of South Australia it is
called e ngeweangko ', and in King George's Sound ' miro '.

From these considerations we arrive at the conclusion that in
the earliest stages of culture the arts are far more stable than
language : whilst the arts are subject only, or chiefly, to those
changes which result from growth, language, in addition to
those which result from growth, is also affected by changes
arising from phonetic decay.

The importance therefore of studying the grammar, so to
speak, of the arts becomes apparent, as it is by this means alone
that we can trace out the origin and evolution of culture in the
earliest times.

The task before us is to follow by means of them the succession
of ideas by which the mind of man has developed, from the
simple to the complex, and from the homogeneous to the hetero-
geneous ; to work out step by step, by the use of such symbols as
the arts afford, that law of contiguity by which the mind has
passed from simple cohesion of states of consciousness to the
association of ideas, and so on to broader generalizations.

This development has to be considered under the two heads o£
culture and constitution, that is to say, that we have to consider
not only the succession of ideas in the mind resulting from
experience, but also the development by inheritance of the
internal organism of the mind itself, or, to use the words of Mr.
Herbert Spencer, ' In the progress of life at large, as in the
progress of the individual, the adjustment of inner tendencies to
outer persistencies must begin with the simple and advance to the
complex, seeing that, both within and without, complex relations,
being made up of simple ones, cannot be established before
simple ones have been established ' (Pri?ic. of Psych., i3, p. 426).

We find no difficulty in assenting* to the general proposition
that culture has been a work of progress. Our difficulty lies in

30 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

realizing1 the slow stages of its early development, owing* to the
complexities both of our mental constitution and of the con-
temporaneous culture from which experience is drawn, or, again
to use Mr. Spencer's more expressive words, of our ' inner
tendencies ', and c outer persistencies ' ; we are apt to regard as
intuitive, if not congenital, many simple ideas which in early
culture can only have been worked out through the exercise of
experience and reason during a long course of ages.

We see this error of our own minds constantly displayed in the
education of children. The ideas in a child's mind, like those of
mankind at large, are necessarily built up in sequence. The
instructor makes use of some word, the meaning of which is
clearly understood by him, but which does not fall into the
sequence of the child's reasoning ; the conception associated with
it in the child's mind must, however, necessarily conform to such
sequence. Hence a confusion of ideas, which is often attributed
to the stupidity of the child, but which is in reality due to the
inexperience of the instructor ; as, for instance, in the case
exemplified by Pip, in Dickens' Great Expectations, who, having
imbibed the precept that he was to f walk in the same all the days
of his life ', was led by his sequence of ideas to infer therefrom
that he was invariably to walk to school by the same path, and
on no account go round by the pastrycook's.

And so in studying savages and early races whose mental
development corresponds in some degree to that of children, we
have to guard against this automorphism, as Mr. Spencer terms
it; that is to say, the tendency to estimate the capacity of others
by our own, which appears almost completely to incapacitate
some people from dealing with the subject.

The question of the free will of man enters largely into this
study. I shall not be expected to say much upon a subject
which has so lately occupied the attention of the public, having
been discussed by some of our ablest scientists; but I cannot
avoid quoting, in reference to this point, a passage from Dr.
Carpenter's Mental Physiology, who in this controversy is
certainly entitled to be regarded as the champion of free will ;
and therefore by quoting him we run no risk of overstating the case
against free will. ' Our mental activity,' he says (p. 25), is ' entirely
spontaneous or automatic, being determined by our congenital

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 31

nervous organism. ... It may be stated as a fundamental principle
that the will can never originate any form of mental activity. . . . '
But it has the power, he continues, of selecting any one out of
several objects that present themselves either simultaneously or
successively before the mental vision, and of so limiting and
intensifying the impression which that particular object makes
upon the consciousness, that all others shall be for the time non-
existent to it.

The truth of this, in so far as regards the limitation of the
will, cannot fail to force itself upon the student of culture. It is,
I venture to think, by classifying and arranging in evolutionary^
order the actual facts of the manifestations of mind, as seen in
the development of the arts, institutions, and languages of man-
kind, no less than by comparative anatomy, and far more than
by metaphysical speculation, that we shall arrive at a solution
of the question, to what extent the mental Ego has been, to
use Professor Huxley's expression, a conscious spectator of what
has passed.

I propose, therefore, with your permission, to give a few
examples, by means of diagrams, of material evolution derived
from the earliest phases of culture. In language and in all ideas
communicated by word of mouth there is a hiatus between the
limits of our knowledge and. the origin of culture which can
never be bridged over, but we may hold in our hand the first tool
ever created by the hand of man.

It has been said that the use of speech is the distinctive quality
of man. But how can we know that ? We are literally sur-
rounded by brute language. We can imitate their calls, and we
find that animals will respond to our imitations of them. But who
has ever seen any of the lower animals construct a tool and use it.

The conception of man, not as a tool-using but as a tool-maMng
animal, is clear, defined, and unassailable ; probably if we could
trace language to its sources, we should be able to draw the same
line between natural sounds employed as a medium of communi-
cation, and the created word. Thus the arts which we can study
may perhaps be taken to illustrate the origin of language, which
we cannot study in this phase.

The ape employs both sticks and stones as missiles and as
hammers to crack the shells of nuts. But we have no evidence

32 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

that he ever selects special forms for special uses. The arts
therefore afford us a clearly defined starting-point for the com-
mencement of culture.

To go in search of a particular form of stick or stone in order
to apply it to a particular use would require greater effort of the
will in fixing attention continuously on the matter in hand than
is found to exist amongst the lower animals except in cases of
instinct, which term I understand to mean an inherited congenital
nervous organism which adapts the mind to the ready reception
of experience of a particular kind. But this instinct does not
exist in the case in question ; there is no tool-making instinct :
our tool has to be evolved through reason and experience, without
the aid of any special organism for the purpose.

The process we have to assume therefore is that, in using
stones as hammers, they would occasionally split. In using
certain stratified rocks this would occur frequently, and so force
itself on the attention of the creature. The creature going on
hammering, it would force itself on his notice that the sharp
fractured end was doing better work than before. It would be
perceived that there were hard things and soft things, that the
hard things split the stone, and the soft things were cut by it ;
and so there would grow up in the mind an association of ideas
between striking hard things and splitting, and striking soft
things and cutting, and also a sequence by which it would be
perceived that the fracture of the stone was a necessary pre-
liminary to the other ; and in the course of many generations,
during which the internal organism of the mind grew in harmony
with this experience, the creature would be led to perform the
motions which had been found effectual in splitting the stone
before applying it to the purposes for which it was to be used.

Thus we arrive at a state of the arts in which we may suppose
man to be able to construct a tool by means of a single blow.
By constantly striking in the same direction, flakes would be pro-
duced ; and by still further repeating the same motions, it would
at last be found that by means of many blows a stone could be
chipped to an edge or a point so as to form a very efficient tool.

But this continued chipping of the stone in order to produce a
tool, implies a considerable mental advance upon the effort of
mind necessary to construct a tool with one blow.

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 33

It implies continued attention directed by the will to the
accomplishment of an object already conceived in the mind, and
its subsequent application to another object which must also have
been conceived in the mind before the tool was begun.

Now we know from all experience, and from all evolution
which we can trace with certainty, that progress moves on in an
accelerating ratio, and that the earlier processes take longer than
the later ones.

But the implements of the drift, which are the earliest relics of
human workmanship as yet recognized, are most of them multi-
flaked tools, such as the implements figured on Plate XII, ,
Nos. 1-10, requiring a considerable time to construct, and the
use of innumerable blows in order to trim to a point at one end.

It appears therefore evident that in the natural course of events
the drift period must have been preceded by an earlier period of
considerable extent characterized by the use of single-flaked tools,,
And we may therefore consider it probable that should any evi-
dences of man be hereafter discovered in miocene beds, they will
be associated with such large rude flakes as those now exhibited,
which require a feebler effort of attention and of reason to construct.

If we examine the forms of the flint implements of the drift,
we find that out of many intermediate shapes we may recognize
three in particular, which have been minutely described by
Mr. Evans in his valuable work on the stone implements of
Britain1 : (i) a side-tool, consisting of a flint chipped to an edge
on one side and having the natural rounded outside of the flint
left on the other side, where it appears to have been held in the
hand ; (2) a tongue-shaped implement chipped to a point at one
end, and having the rounded surface for the hand at the big end ;
and (3) an oval or almond-shaped tool, which is often chipped to
an edge all round.

We have no evidence to show which of these kind of tools was
the earliest ; but that they were employed for different uses there
can be little reason to doubt. But have we any evidence to
throw light on the way in which these several forms originated
in the minds of men in the very low condition of mental develop-
ment which we may suppose to have existed at the time ?

1 John Evans, The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great
Britain (London, 1872 l), 1897 2, p. 641.

p.r. D

34 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

About eight years ago, whilst examining the ancient British
camps on the South Downs, I chanced to discover in the camp of
Cissbury, near Worthing, a large flint factory of the neolithic
age. There were some sixty or more pits from which flints had
been obtained from the chalk, and these pits were full of the
debris of the flint-workers. The factory was of the neolithic
age, the most characteristic tool of which is the flint celt, a form
which differs but slightly from the oval or almond-shaped palaeo-
lithic form, but the cutting edge of which is more decidedly at the
broad end. The debris, some six hundred or more specimens of
which were collected, consisted chiefly of these celts in various
stages of manufacture.

If any one will attempt to make a flint celt, as I have done
sometimes (and Mr. Evans, from whom I learnt that art, has
done frequently), he will find that it is difficult to command the
fracture of the flint with certainty ; every now and then a large
piece will come off, or a flaw will be discovered which spoils the
symmetry of the tool, and it has to be thrown away. In
arranging and classifying the remains of this flint factory, I
found that all the palaeolithic forms were represented by one or
other of these unfinished celts, so much so as to make it doubtful
whether some of them may not actually have been used like them.

A celt finished at the thin end, and abandoned before the
cutting edge was completed, represented a tongue-shaped palaeo-
lithic implement ; a celt finished only on one side represented
a palaeolithic side-tool; and a celt rudely chipped out, and
abandoned before receiving its finishing strokes, represented
almost exactly an oval palaeolithic tool, only differing from it in
being somewhat rougher, and showing evidence of unfinish.

Taking a lesson then from this flint- worker's shop of the later
neolithic age, we see how the earlier palaeolithic forms originated.
They were not designed outright, as the nineteenth-century man
would have designed them for special uses, but arose from
a selection of varieties produced accidentally in the process of
manufacture. The forms were also suggested by those of the
nodules out of which they were made. We see, by examining
the outside surfaces that were left on some of them, how a long
thin nodule produced a long thin celt, a broad thick nodule
a broad thick celt, and so forth. Indeed, so completely does the

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 35

fabricator appear to have been controlled by the necessities of his
art, that in tracing these successive forms one is almost tempted
to ask whether the principle of causation lay mostly in the flint
or in the flint-worker, so fully do they bear out the statement of
Dr. Carpenter and the other physiologists, that nothing originates
in the free will of man.

On these two diagrams (Plates I and II) I haves hown how,
from the same form of palaeolithic implement already described,
the more complex forms of the spear and axe-blade of the subse-
quent periods were developed. The point developed into a spear,
and the broad end into an axe-blade. You will see by reference
to Plate I that the oval tool of the drift suggested the smaller
leaf-shaped spear-head of the early neolithic age. This, by
a gradual straightening of the sides, became the lozenge-shaped
form, which latter developed into the barbed form, and this last
into the triangular form, which consists of barbs without a tang.

On the other hand, this same oval tool of the drift (Plate II),
when used as an axe-blade with the broad end, became the celt of
the neolithic period, chipped only at first and subsequently
polished. This gave rise to the copper celt of the same form
having convex surfaces, which grew into the bronze celt with flat
sides. Then the bronze celt was furnished with a stop to prevent
its being pressed too far into the handle by the blow. Others
were furnished with projecting flanges to prevent them from
swerving by the blow when hafted on a bent stick. Others had
both stops and flanges. By degrees the flanges were bent over
the stops and over the handle, and then the central portion above
the stops, being no longer required, became thinner, and ulti-
mately disappeared, the flanges closed on each other, and by this
means the weapon grew into the socket celt. On this socket celt
you will see that there is sometimes a semicircular ornamentation
on each side. This semicircular ornament, as I pointed out in
a paper on primitive warfare read some time ago, is a vestige of
the overlapping flange of the earlier forms out of which it grew,
which, like the rings on our brass cannon, are survivals of parts
formerly serving for special uses (pp. 182-3 below).

In the vertical columns I have given, in the order of their
occurrence, the successive periods of prehistoric time, viz. the
early palaeolithic, late palaeolithic, early neolithic, late neolithic,

d a

36 THE EVOLUTION OE CULTURE

early bronze, late bronze and iron periods, beneath which I have
placed lines for two distinct phases of modern savage culture,
viz. the Australian and the American Indian. A cross beneath
each form denotes the periods in which they occur, and a vertical
bar denotes that they are of rare or doubtful occurrence ; so that
the sequence of development may be seen at a glance, and it is
only a glance that I ask you to take at these diagrams on the
present occasion. I have checked them with Mr. Evans' work
and also with Sir William Wilde's Catalogue,1 and I do not think
that any of the statements made in them will be challenged ;
but as these forms were not developed for the purpose of filling
in the spaces in rectangular diagrams, such diagrams only
imperfectly convey an idea of the evolution which has taken
place, and must be regarded only as provisional and liable to
be improved.

In tracing the evolution of prehistoric implements, we are of
course limited to such as were constructed of imperishable
materials. No doubt our prehistoric ancestors used also imple-
ments of wood, but they have long since disappeared ; and if we
wish to form an idea of what they were, we must turn to those of
his nearest congener, the modern savage.

In speaking of savages, the question of progression versus
degeneration is probably familiar to most of those present,
through the writings of Sir John Lubbock and Mr. E. B. Tylor.
To the several weighty arguments in favour of progression given
by those writers I will add this one derived from the sequence
of ideas.

If the Australians, for example, were the degenerate descendants
of people in a higher phase of culture, then, as all existing ideas
are made up of previous ideas, we must inevitably find amongst
their arts traces of the forms of earlier and higher arts, as is the
case amongst some of the savages of South America who early
came in contact with Peruvian civilization ; but the reverse
of this is the case : all the forms of the Australian weapons are
derived from those of nature.

In the same way that we saw that the forms of the palaeolithic
flint implements were suggested by accidental fractures in the

1 Sir W. Wilde, Catalogue of the Antiquities of the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy (Dublin, 1863).

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 37

workshop, so the several forms of the Australian wooden imple-
ments were suggested by the various forms of the stems and
branches out of which they were made. These savages, having
only flint tools to work with, cannot saw out their weapons to
any form they please; they can only trim the sticks into
a serviceable shape. All their weapons are therefore constructed
on the grain of the wood, and their forms and uses have arisen
from a selection of the natural curves of the sticks.

I have arranged, on Plate III, drawings of nearly all the
weapons used by the Australians, placing them together according
to their affinities in such a manner as to show hypothetically
their derivation from a single form. As all the forms given on
this diagram are drawings of weapons in use at the present time,
and there are many intermediate forms not given here, I have not
arranged them in horizontal lines, as in the previous diagrams,
to show their place in time, but have arranged them as radiating
from a central point. We know nothing of the antiquities
of savage countries as yet, and therefore cannot trace their evo-
lution in time. The development has therefore been shown by
means of survivals of early forms existing at the present time.

In the centre I have placed the simple cylindrical stick, as
being the simplest form. By a gradual development of one end
I have traced upwards the formation of a sharp ridge and its
transition into a kind of mushroom form. To the right upwards
I have traced the same development of the mushroom head, the
projecting ridge of which is constantly liable to fractures by
blows ; and as savages always systematize accidental fractures so
as to produce symmetry, scollops have been cut out of the ridge
in different places for this purpose, which had the effect of concen-
trating the force of the blow on the projections. These were
further developed ; one of the pilei of the mushroom head was
made larger than the others, and this suggested the form of a
bird's head, so that it was only necessary to add a line for the
mouth and a couple of eyes to complete the resemblance. To the
right we see that the plain stick held in the centre gave the first
idea of a defensive weapon, and was used to parry off the darts of
the assailant ; an aperture was then made in the stick for the
hand, and the face of it became broader, developing into a shield,
the narrow ends, however, being still retained for parrying.

38 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

Below I have shown that the long stick simply pointed at one
end became a lance ; a row of sharp flints were gummed on to
one side to produce a cutting edge, and these were then imitated
in wood, and by pointing them obliquely they were converted into
barbs. To the right another kind of barb was produced by
binding on a piece of sharp-pointed wood. Between this and the
shields we see that the first idea of the throwing- stick, employed
to project these lances, was simply constructed like the barbed
point of the lance itself. The gradual expansion of the stick
arose from its being employed like a battledore, to fence off the
enemy's lances. To the left below I have shown the gradual
development of a peculiar curved weapon, called the 'malga'',
formed from a stem and the branch projecting from it at
different angles. The part where the continuation of the stem
was cut off was trimmed to a kind of ridge ; this ridge developed,
and suggested the crest of a bird's head; ultimately the eyes
were added, in the same manner as in the club on the opposite
side of the diagram. To the left we see the plain round stick
first flattened, then curved. Savages are in the habit of throwing
all their weapons at their adversaries and at animals. In
throwing a flat curved stick it rotates of its own accord, and as
the axis of rotation continues parallel to itself, the thin edge is
presented to the resistance of the air in front ; this increases the
range, and its peculiar flight must have forced itself on the
attention of the savage as the result of experience : but he has
never had the slightest knowledge of the laws of its flight. The
different curves of the boomerang are the natural curves of the
sticks, and like all the Australian weapons, they are made on the
grain of the wood. Some are thicker than others ; some will fly
in the curves peculiar to that weapon, and others will not :
scarcely two are alike.

To the left above, we see the mushroom-headed c waddy ', with
its projecting ridge flattened, then curved; one side becomes
more developed than the other, and this being thrown develops
into the waddy boomerang, the ridge of the earlier forms being
still represented by a mark on the flat head of the weapon ; an
intermediate link connects it with the true boomerang.

Many other examples might be given to illustrate the con-
tinuity which exists in the development of all savage weapons ;

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 39

but I only ask you to glance at the sequence shown in this
diagram and the preceding ones in order to convince you of the
truth of the statement which I made at the commencement of
this discourse, that although, owing to the complexity of modern
contrivances and the larger steps by which we mount the ladder
of progress in the material arts, their continuity may be lost sight
of, when we come to classify the arts of savages and prehistoric
men, the term ' growth • is fully as applicable to them as to the
development of the forms of speech, and that there are no grounds,
upon the score of continuity, history, or the action of free will, to
separate these studies generically as distinct classes of science.

But in dealing with evolution we have to speak not only of
growth, but, as in all other natural sciences, of the principle
of decay. By decay I do not mean the decay of the materials of
the arts, but the decomposition of the mental ideas which pro-
duced them.

As complex ideas are built up of simple ones, so there is also
a further process by which they become disintegrated, and the
parts go to form parts of other ideas.

This decay in the arts corresponds to what is called phonetic
decay in language ; and in both cases it arises either from
incapacity, the desire to save trouble, or the necessity of abbre-
viating when ideas originally . evolved for one purpose come to
form parts of other ideas to which they are merely accessory
and subordinate, as in the well-known dialectic changes of
speech. Every sound in language had originally a distinct
meaning of its own; gradually these sounds or roots came
to form parts of words in which the original meanings of the
sounds were lost.

I will now endeavour to draw a parallel to this in the arts, by
means of what may be termed realistic degeneration.

I will not say much as to the place of realism in culture.
The archaeological world has lately been somewhat startled by
the discovery of well- executed designs of elephants and other
animals in the French caves in association with the rude stone
implements of the palaeolithic age, and by the more recent
discovery of Mariette Bey, that the earliest Egyptian sculptures
of the third dynasty are the most truthful representations of
the human form that are to be found in that country. I see

40 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

nothing surprising in this, when we consider the power that
is developed in many children of eight or nine years old of
making drawings of animals and other objects, which, when
allowance is made for the feeble hand of childhood, are often as
truthful as those of the cave-period men, at a time when their minds
have acquired but little power of reasoning or generalizing, or even
of taking care of themselves ; all which goes to prove that this
power of imitation, which is a very different thing from ideal art,
is one of the most early developed faculties of the mind of man.

When the power of imitation had once been developed, it
would naturally be made use of as a means of intercommunica-
tion; thus the drawing of a stag would be made to convey
information to people at a distance that there was a herd of deer
in the neighbourhood to be hunted; and as the object of the
drawing was no longer to depict truthfully the peculiarities of
the beast, but merely to convey information, the amount of
labour expended upon it would be the least that could be
employed for the required purpose. All written characters have
originated in this way ; and no one now requires to be told how
pictographic representations developed into hieroglyphic and
subsequently into phonetic characters.

But realistic degeneration would equally take place in all cases
in which pictorial representations came to be employed for other
purposes than those for which they were originally designed, as
in the case of ornamental designs.

So also a coin receives upon its surface the image of a king or
a god as a stamp of authority. When from any cause the object
of the original design is lost, the object of the stamp being no
longer to convey a likeness, but being merely used as a test
of genuineness, or perhaps amongst an unlettered people to
denote its value, the tendency to realistic degeneration would be
proportioned to the difficulties of execution ; no further labour
would be expended on it than was necessary for the object to be
attained. Here I must again remind you of the interesting
discourse delivered in this Institution on May 14, 1875, by
Mr. Evans, on the evolution of British coins.1 His examples are

1 John Evans, 'On the Coinage of the Ancient Britons and Natural
Selection,' Journal of the Royal Institution, vii. p. 476 ff. ; with a Plate, which
is reproduced, by permission, in Plate XXI.

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 41

figured in his Coins of the Ancient Britons, pp. 24-32. With his
permission I have introduced some of his diagrams (Plate XXI).
You will remember how the coin of Philip of Macedon having
been introduced into Britain, the head on the obverse gradually-
disappeared, leaving only the wreath as a band across the coin,
which was ultimately converted into a cross ; and how on the
reverse, the chariot and two horses dwindled into a single horse,
the chariot disappeared, leaving only the wheels, the driver
became elevated, not elevated after the manner unfortunately
but too common amongst London drivers, but elevated after the
manner of the Spiritualists, except that you see he had the
precaution to take on a pair of wings, differing also both from
the London driver and the Spiritualists, inasmuch as instead
of having lost his head he has lost his body, and nothing but
the head remains; the body of the horse then gradually dis-
appears, leaving only four lines to denote the legs.

I will now show you an exact parallel to these transformations
in a collection of designs, supposed to be tribal marks, which are
drawn upon the paddle blades of the New Irelanders, a race of
Papuan savages inhabiting an island on the north-east coast of
New Guinea.

Having noticed one or two allied varieties of design in speci-
mens that came into my possession, I determined to collect all
that I could find as they came to this country. In the course of
several years I succeeded in obtaining the series represented upon
Plate IV.

The first figure you will see clearly represents the head of
a Papuan : the hair or wig is stuffed out, and the ears elongated
by means of an ear ornament, after the manner of these people ;
the eyes are represented by two black dots, and the red line of
the nose spreads over the forehead. This is the most realistic
figure of the series. In the second figure the face is somewhat
conventionalized : the line of the nose passes in a coil round the
eyes; there is a lozenge pattern on the forehead, representing
probably a tattoo mark ; the body is represented sitting in full.
In the third figure the man is represented sitting sideways,
simply by lopping off an arm and a leg on one side. In the
foui'th figure the legs have disappeared. In the fifth figure
the whole body has disappeared. In the sixth figure the nose

42 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

has expanded at the base, and the sides of the face are made
to conform to the line of the nose ; the elongated ears are there,
but the ear ornament is gone : the nose in this figure is becoming
the principal feature. In the seventh figure nothing but the
nose is left : the sides of the face and mouth are gone ; the ears
are drawn along the side of the nose ; the head is gone, but the
lozenge pattern on the forehead still remains; the coil round
the eyes has also disappeared, and is replaced by a kind of leaf
form, suggested by the upper lobe of the ear in the previous
figures ; the eyes are brought down into the nose. In the eighth
figure the ears are drawn at right angles to the nose. In the
ninth figure the nose has expanded at the base; all the rest
is the same as in the last figure. In the tenth figure the lozenge
pattern and the ears have disappeared, and a vestige of them
only remains, in the form of five points ; the base of the nose is
still further expanded into a half moon. In the last figure,
nothing but a half moon remains. No one who compared this
figure with the first of the series, without the explanation
afforded by the intermediate links, would believe that it repre-
sented the nose of a human face. Unfortunately we do not
know as yet the exact meaning of these designs, but when
further information is obtained about them it will throw con-
siderable light on similar transformations in prehistoric times.

My next and last illustration is taken from the relics of Troy,
recently brought to light by Dr. Schliemann.1 In the valuable
work lately published by him he gives illustrations of a number
of earthenware vases and other objects, called by him idols,
having on them the representation of what he conceives to be
the face of an owl, and which he believes to represent Athena,
the tutelary goddess of Troy, called by Homer ' Glaukopis Athene ',
which signifies, according to him, 'with the face of an owl/
Professor Max Miiller has given his opinion that the word
' glaukopis ' cannot possibly be taken to mean owl- faced, but
can only mean large- or bright-eyed. On this point I will
venture no opinion, but accepting Professor Muller's high

1 For illustrations, see Troy and its Remains, by Dr. Henry Schliemann
(Murray, 1875). The figures may be taken in the following order : No. 185,
No. 74, No. 132, No. 13, No. 173, No. 207, No. 12, No. 11, No. 133, No. 141,
No. 165. [Plate V has been compiled from the references here given.]

THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE 43

authority for the usually received interpretation of it being-
correct, I shall in no way weaken the evidence in favour of
Dr. Schliemann's discovery of the true site of Troy if I succeed in
proving- that, according to the true principle of realistic degene-
ration, this figure does not represent an owl but a human face.

The figures on Plate V are all taken from Dr. Schliemann's
representations, and as the depth of each is given it will be seen
that the different varieties of face occur in all the different strata
excavated by him except the highest, and therefore no argument
as to antiquity can be based upon the depth at which they were
found. The two first figures, it will be seen, are clearly intended
to represent a human face, all the features being preserved. In
the two next figures (3, 4) the mouth has disappeared, but the fact
of the principal feature being still a nose and not a beak, is shown
by the breadth of the base and also by the representation of the
breasts. In the two succeeding figures (5, 6) the nose is narrowed
at the base, which gives it the appearance of a beak, but the fact
of its being still a human form is still shown by the breasts. Had
the idea of an owl been developed through realistic degeneration
in these last figures, it would have retained this form, but in the
two succeeding figures (7, 8) it will be seen that the nose goes on
diminishing.

In the remaining figures, some of which are (12-16) of solid
stone, not earthenware, and are believed by Dr. Schliemann to be
gods, it is clearly shown by the rude scratches representing the
eyebrows, and their want of symmetry, that this degeneration
of form is the result of haste.

What then are these solid stone objects ? I cannot for
a moment doubt, from their resemblance to the vases, from
the marks denoting the junction of the cover with the vase, and
from the representations of handles, that they are votive urns of
some kind, similar to those Egyptian stone models of urns repre-
sented in the two figures above. Urns of this kind were used by
the Egyptians to contain the viscera of the mummies ; but with
the cheaper form of burial, in which the viscera were retained in
the body, stone models of urns, of which these figures are draw-
ings from originals in the British Museum, were deposited in the
graves as vestiges of the earlier and more expensive process;
these objects therefore cannot be idols, but votive urns. The

44 THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE

fact of human remains having been found in some of the human -
headed urns, and the hasty scratches on the stone models, show
that they are merely models appertaining to the conventionalized
survival of some earlier or more elaborate system of urn burial.

We see from these facts that both growth and decay, the
two component elements of evolution, are represented in the
study of the material arts.

My object in this discourse has been not, as I fear it may
have appeared to you from the brief time at my disposal and
my imperfect treatment of the subject, to extol the material
arts as being intrinsically of more interest or importance than
other branches of culture, but to affirm the principle that it is
by studying the psychology of the material arts alone that we
can trace human culture to its germs.

The theory of degradation is supported only by the study of
those branches of culture of which the early history is lost.

The tree is the type of all evolution : all trees are seedlings,
but they differ in their mode of growth. Some, like the beech
and oak, throw their branches upwards, and these are typical
of the development of the material arts ; others, like the straight-
stemmed pine, throw off their branches downwards, and these
are typical of the development of some other branches of culture.
It is quite true, as stated by mythologists, that the history of
myths is one of continued degeneration in so far as they can
be traced, and that the element of decay enters far more into
their composition than that of growth. But the whole accessible
history of these myths represents drooping branches from the
upward-growing stem of free thought out of which they sprang.
What is the space of time which separates us from the Vedas, as
compared with the whole upward growth of humanity before
and since !

There are huge gaps in our knowledge of the history of the
human race, and it has been the pleasure of mankind in all ages
to people these gaps with jugglers and bogies; but surely,
if slowly, science will open up these desert places, and prove
to us that, so far as the finite mind of man can reach, there
is nothing but unbroken continuity to be seen in the present and
in the past.

[Proc. Roy. Inst. Gt. Brit., VII. PI. i.]

Plate I.

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lll <

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LU

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[P. R. I. G. B., VII. PI. iii.]

Plate III.

[P. R. I. G. B., VII. PI. iii.]

Plate III.

MUSHROOM CLUB

LANCE

[P. E. I. G. B., VII. PL iv = J. A. I., IV. PL xxii.]
Fig. i. Fig- 2- Fis x

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

ORNAMENTATION OF NEW IRELAND PADDLES, SHOWING THE
TRANSITION OF FORM.

Plate V.

4 (13:6m)

9 (133:3m)

5 (i73:8m)

6 (207:6m)

10 (141:3m)

11 (165:7m)

16 (20:8m)

13 (15:9m) 14 (16:8m) 15 (18:9m)

2Tos. 1-11 are of Terra-cotta.
Nos. 12-16 are of White Marble.

12 (163:8m) REALISTIC DEGENERATION.

ILLUSTRATED BY REPRESENTATIONS OP THE HUMAN FACE, FOUND
BY DR. SCHLIEMANN AT TROY.

\The numerals in brackets give — (1) the number of the figure in Schliemann1 s Troy and its
Remains, (2) the depth at which the figure was found, in metres.}

[Proc. Roy. Inst. Gt. Brit., VII, pp. 476-87.]

Plate XXI.

EVOLUTION OF TYPES ON ANCIENT BRITISH COINS.

PEIMITIYE WARFARE

Although it is more in accordance with the purposes for
which this establishment has been organized, that the Lecture-
room should be devoted chiefly to subjects of practical utility
connected with the improvement of our military system and the
progress of the mechanical appliances, the organization, and
general efficiency of our Army and Navy, than to the efforts of
abstract science, yet the fact of your possessing in the three
large apartments that are devoted to your armoury, one of the
best assortments of semi-civilized and savage weapons that are
to be found in this country, or, perhaps, in any part of the
world, is sufficient to prove that it is not foreign to the objects
of the Institution that the science of war should be ethnographi-
cally and archaeologically, as well as practically, treated.

The requirements of our advancing age demand that every
vein of knowledge should be opened out, and, in order to make
good our title to so interesting a collection of objects as that
comprised in what may very properly be called our ethnographi-
cal military department, it should be shown that, whether or
not the subject may be considered to fall within the ordinary
functions of the Society, our Museum is made available for the
purposes of science.

The age in which we live is not more remarkable for its rapid
onward movement than for its intelligent retrospect of the past.
It is reconstructive as well as progressive. The light which is
kindled by the practical discoveries of modern science, throws
back its rays, and enables us to distinguish objects of interest,
which have been unnoticed in the gloom of bygone ages, or
passed over with contempt.

Men observe only those things which their occupations or their
education enable them to understand and appreciate. When

1 A Lecture delivered at the Royal United Service Institution, Friday,
June 28, 1867 ; illustrated by specimens from the Museum of the Institu-
tion : and published in the Journal of the R. U. S. Inst, xi (1867).

46 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

a savage is introduced on board the deck of a European vessel,
he notices only those objects with the uses of which he is familiar
— the sewing of a coat, a chain, or a cable, at once rivets his
attention, but he passes by the steam-engine without observation,
and if a work of art is forced upon his notice, he is unable to say
whether it represents a man, a ship, or a kangaroo ! x So in
past ages the flint implements of the drift, the parents of all our
modern implements, whether for war or handicraft, must have
been carted away in hundreds, unobserved, and in ignorance that
these inconspicuous objects would one day be the means of up-
setting the received chronology of our species.

Whilst, therefore, we devote our energies chiefly to progress,
and fix our attention upon the present and future of war, it cannot
fail to interest those who are actively engaged in the duties of
their profession, if we occasionally take a glance backward and
see what recent discoveries have done towards elucidating its
origin and early history.

It might, perhaps, assist a right understanding of the principles
on which the weapons and implements of savages deserve to be
studied, if I were to notice some of those great questions respect-
ing the origin of our species, and man's place in nature, which
the investigations of science have been the means of raising in
our day. I need hardly say that the rude implements, which I
I am about to describe, are of little practical interest in them-
selves, as models for instruction or imitation. We have no need
of bows and arrows in the existing state of war, and if we did
require them, the appliances of modern times would enable us to
construct them in far greater perfection than could be acquired by
any lessons from savages. These weapons are valuable only, in the
absence of other evidence, from the light they throw on prehistoric
times, and on those great questions to which I have alluded, and
from their enabling us to trace out the origin of many of those
customs which have been handed down to us by past generations.

As, however, the discussion of these interesting subjects would
lead me into matters that are hardly suited to the Lecture-room
of this Institution, I must pass over the consideration of them
with a few brief remarks.

1 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 298; Oldfield, 'Abori-
gines of Australia,' Trans. Ethno. Soc, N. S. (London, 1865), vol. iii. p. 227.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 47

In so doing, I may appear to postulate some opinions upon
points that are still the subject of animated controversy in the
scientific world. But it would require a far broader field of
investigation than is here afforded me, in order to treat these
inquiries successfully, and to adduce all the evidence that would
be necessary to support the hypotheses put forward ; and I am
anxious to devote no greater space to these preliminary remarks
than is necessary to point out some of the main features of
interest that are involved in the particular study which forms
the subject of my lecture.

We are apt to speak of the creation of the universe as a thing
of the past, and to suppose that the world, with all the varied
life upon it, previous to man's appearance, having been created
for his especial happiness and supremacy, was afterwards left to
his control and government. But this view of the subject belongs
to an age in which the laws of nature in their all-sufficiency and
completeness were but little studied and appreciated. Modern
science finds no evidence of any such abandonment of the uni-
verse to man's jurisdiction. The more comprehensively the
subject is viewed, the more restricted appear to be those limits
over which the free will of mankind is permitted to range, and
the more evident it becomes, that in his social advancement, his
laws, arts, and wars, he moves on under the influence and de-
velopment of those same laws which have been in force from the
very first dawn of creation. The lower the archaeologist searches
in the crust of the earth for the relics of human art, the more
faint become the traces of that broad gulf, which in our times
appears to separate man from the brute creation. In all the
numerous and varied offsprings of the human intellect, in the
arts, and even in speech, the more we investigate and trace
them back, the more clearly they appear to point to a condition
of the human race in which they had no existence whatever. The
great law of nature, e natura non facit saltum,' was not broken by
the introduction of man upon the earth. He appears to have
been produced in the fullness of time, as the work of creation
required a more perfect tool, and to have ameliorated his condition,
only as the work to be performed became more complicated and
varied, just as in the hands of man, the rougher tool is employed
for felling, and the finer tool for finishing and polishing.

48 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

By this view we come to look upon even the most barbarous
state of man's existence, as a condition, not so much of degrada-
tion, as of arrested or retarded progress, and to see that, notwith-
standing many halts and relapses, and a very varied rate of
movement in the different races, the march of the human
intellect has been always onward.

As, in the lower creation, we find no individuals that are
capable of self-improvement, though some appear, by their
imitative faculties, to contain within them the germs of an
improving element, so the aboriginal man, closely resembling
the brutes, may have passed through many generations before
he began to show even the first symptoms of mental cultivation,
or the rudiments of the simplest arts ; and even then his progress
may have been, at first, so slow, that it is not without an effort
of imagination that the civilized races of our day can realize, by
means of the implements which he has left us, the minute grada-
tions which appear to mark the stages of his advancement. This
appears to be the view taken by Sir Charles Lyell in his Antiquity
of Man, when, in comparing the flint implements found in the
higher and lower-level gravels of the valley of the Somme, he
arrives at the conclusion ' that the state of the arts in those early
times remained stationary for almost indefinite periods '. ' We
see/ he says, ' in our own time, that the rate of progress in the arts
and sciences proceeds in a geometrical ratio as knowledge increases,
and so, when we carry back our retrospect into the past, we must
be prepared to find the signs of retardation augmenting in a like
geometrical ratio ; so that the progress of a thousand years at
a remote period, may correspond to that of a century in modern
times, and in ages still more remote man would more and more
resemble the brutes in that attribute which causes one generation
exactly to imitate, in all its ways, the generation which pre-
ceded it' (4th ed. 1873, p. 421).

In order to understand the relationship which the savage
tribes of our own time bear to the races of antiquity, it is
necessary to keep in view that, neither in historic nor prehistoric
times is there any evidence that civilization has been equally or
universally distributed ; on the contrary, it appears always to have
been partial, and confined to particular races, whose function
it has been, by means of war and conquest, to spread the arts

i] PKIMITIVE WARFARE 49

amongst surrounding nations, or to exterminate those whose low
state of mental culture rendered them incapable of receiving it.

Assuming the whole of the human species to have sprung
originally from one stock, an hypothesis which, although dis-
puted, appears to me by all existing evidence and analogy of
known facts, to be the most reasonable assumption, the several
races appear to have branched off at various and remote periods,
many of them, perhaps, previously to the present geographical
arrangement of land and water, and to have located themselves
in the several regions in which they are now found, in a state
which probably differs but little from that in which they existed
at the time of their separation from the parent stem.

Each race, after separation, shows evidence of arrested growth ;
and, finally, the intellect of the nation fossilizes and becomes
stationary for an indefinite period, or until destroyed by being
brought again in contact with the leading races in an advanced
stage of civilization, precisely in the same way that the indi-
viduals composing these races, after propagating their species,
stagnate, and ultimately decay, or, in a low state of savagery,
are often destroyed by their own offspring.

Taking a comprehensive view of the development of civiliza-
tion, it may be compared to the growth of those plants whose
vigour displays itself chiefly in the propagation of their leading
shoots, which, overtopping the older and feebler branches, cause
them to be everywhere replaced by a fresh growth of verdure.
The vegetable kingdom thus furnishes us with the grand type of
progress ; continuity and bifurcation are principles of universal
application,' uniting the lowest with the highest created thing.

The analogy of tree growth has been frequently employed in
relation to natural phenomena, and it may very well be taken to
explain the distribution of the human race, and the progress and
expansion of the arts. It forms the key to the Darwinian theory
of natural selection, which is essentially monogenistic in its
application to the origin of the human race.

Thus the existing races of mankind may be taken to represent
the budding twigs and foliage, each in accordance with the
relative superiority of its civilization, appertaining to branches
higher and higher placed, upon the great stem of life.

So little is as yet known of the early history of any but our

50 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

own family of nations, that in the existing state of knowledge,
the attempt to classify and place them on their proper branches,
must be attended with much difficulty, and great liability to
error. However, by arranging the existing races according to
their civilization, a tolerably correct judgement may perhaps be
formed as to the value of this system of classification, if we dis-
tribute them with those of antiquity in some two or three broad
divisions. The Caucasian races of modern Europe, for example,
may be said to bear to their ancestors of the historical period the
same relationship that geologists have shown the existing mam-
malia of our forests to bear to the mammalia of the tertiary
geological period. The semi-civilized Chinese and Hindoos, in
like manner, may be classed with the races of ancient Assyria,
Egypt, and other nations immediately prior to the first dawn of
history, the civilization of which nations they still so greatly
resemble, and appear to have retained, in a state of retarded
progress from those ages to our own. A third division may
perhaps be made of the Malay, Tartar, and African negro
nations, which, though now in an age of iron, may, by the state
of their arts, and more especially by the form of their imple-
ments, be taken as the best representatives of the prehistoric
bronze period of Europe, towards which they appear to hold the
same relationship that the fish and reptiles of our seas bear to
those of the secondary geological period. In a fourth division
may be included the still more barbarous races of our times, the
Australian, Bushman, and hunting races of America, whose
analogy to those of the stone age of Europe may be typified by
that of the mollusca of recent species to the mollusca of the
primary geological period.

In all these existing races, we find that the slowness of their
progression and incapacity for improvement is proportioned to
the low state of their civilization, thereby leading to the supposi-
tion that they may have retained their arts with but slight
modification from the time of their branching from the parent
stem, and may thus be taken as the living representatives of our
common ancestors in the various successive stages of their
advancement.

Many examples of this immobility on the part of savages and
semi-civilized races may be given.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 51

Throughout the entire continent o£ Australia the weapons and
implements are alike, and of the simplest form, and the people
are of the lowest grade. The spear, the waddy, and the boomerang,
with some stone hatchets, are their only weapons ; but amongst
these it has been noticed that, like the implements of the drift,
there are minute differences, scarcely apparent to Europeans, but
which enable a native to determine at a glance to what tribe a
weapon belongs.1 This, whilst it proves a tendency to vary
their forms, shows at the same time either an incapacity, or,
what answers the same purpose, a retarding power or prejudice,
which prevents their effecting more than the smallest appreciable
degree of change. In the island of Tahiti, Captain Cook was
unable to make the natives (a superior race to the Australians)
appreciate the uses of metal, until he had caused his armourer to
construct an iron adze (Plate VI, fig. 1 a)2 of precisely the same
form as their own adzes of basalt (Fig. 1 6). After that, metal
tools came into general use amongst them, though their old
forms are in a great measure preserved to this day. When,
during the American War, the English endeavoured to utilize the
Indians by arming them, they were compelled to construct for
them tomahawks after their own pattern, having a pipe in the
handle (Fig. 2). When the Purus Indians of South America
receive a knife from Europeans they break off the handle, and
fashion the knife according to their own ideas, placing the blade
between two pieces of wood, and binding it round tight with
a sinew.3 The natives of Samoa now use iron adzes, constructed
after the exact pattern of their ancient stone ones.4 The Fiji
Islanders, though they have now the means of obtaining good
blades and chisels from Sheffield, and axes from America, prefer
plane irons to any other form of implement, because they are
able to fix them by lashing them on to their handles in the same
fashion as the ancient stone adzes of their own manufacture,
which they resemble. The Andaman Islanders use the European

1 Oldfield, ' On the Aborigines of Australia,' Trans. Ethno. Soc, N.S., vol. iii.
pp. 261-7.

8 Meyrick (Skelton), Engraved Illustrations of Ancient Arms, &c. (1830), vol. ii.
pi. cxlix. 11.

3 Klemm, Werkseuge und Waffen (Sondershausen, 1858), p. 159.

* Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia (London, 1861), p. 262.

5 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians (London, 1858), vol. i. pp. 78-9.

E %

52 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

metal that falls into their hands, only to grind it down into
spear- and arrow-heads of the same form as their stone ones.
The same applies to the whole of the Aborigines of North and
South America, which have stood by, for nearly three centuries,
passive spectators of the arts of Europeans, without attempt-
ing to copy them. Crawfurd, in his History of the Indian
Archipelago} comments on the obstinate adherence of the
Javanese to ancient customs, in accounting for the kris having
been retained by them long after the causes which produced that
peculiar weapon had ceased to operate. Tylor, in his account of
the Anahuac, observes upon the preservation of old types amongst
the present inhabitants of Mexico, which have remained almost
unchanged from generation to generation, enabling the historian
to distinguish clearly those which are of Aztec from those which
are of Spanish origin.2 Herodotus describes the spears carried
by the Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes as being armed with
the sharpened horn of the antelope.3 Consul Petherick found
still in use by the Djibba negroes, more than two thousand years
after, these identical spears, armed with the straightened and
sharpened horn of the antelope, and their other weapons also
resembled in character those described by Herodotus, although
they had passed from the stone weapons then used, into an age
of metal.4 The Scythian bow (Plate VI, fig. 3) is the bow still used
by the whole of the Tartar races (Fig. 4). The celt of the Tartar,
and the celt and sword of the Negro (Fig. 5) are still the celt
and sword of the European bronze period (Fig. 6), and this
resemblance is not confined to the general outline of the weapons,
but extends to the style and patterns of ornamentation. The
same identity of form exists between the ' manillas ' (Fig. 7) used
as a medium of exchange in the Eboe country of West Africa
and the so-called penannular rings or ring money (Fig. 8) of gold
and bronze which are found in Ireland, and which, with some
modifications, belong also to Germany and the Swiss Lakes.
The corrugated iron blade of the Kaffir assegai, a section of

1 Crawfurd, History (Edinburgh, 1820), vol. i. p. 224.

2 Tylor, Anahuac (London, 1861), p. 70.

3 Hdt. vii. 69 : Rawlinson, Herodotus, vol. iv (2nd ed., 1862, p. 55).

* Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa (Edinb. and London, 1861),
p. 360.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 53

which is shown in Fig. 9, and which is used also in Central and
West Africa, is identical with those found in the Saxon graves
(Fig. 10), and is intended to give a spiral motion to these
missiles. Chevalier Eolard observes that the Gauls were re-
markable for the tenacity with which they clung to their ancient
customs, while the Romans, their conquerors, are mentioned by
all historians as peculiar in their time for the facility with which
they adopted the customs of others, and developed their own.1
In modern Europe, the Gipsies have also been noticed as being
distinguished from the Europeans in all the various localities in
which they are found, for their remarkable adherence to especial
arts, savouring of an extinct civilization. Amongst the Chinese
and Hindoos, the conservatism which has caused them to remain
for ages in nearly the same condition is too well known to require
comment. It will, however, be remembered (in illustration of
the fact that customs of minor importance often survive great
political changes, and serve to keep up the continuity that would
otherwise be broken), that after the Manchu Tartars had con-
quered and established themselves in the Chinese territory, they
were nearly driven again from the country, on account of their
forcing upon the subject people the custom of wearing pigtails,
after the fashion of their conquerors ; showing how difficult it is
to ingraft, upon an alien race, customs that are not indigenous.

These, and many other notices of a similar character that are
to be found in the pages of travel, establish it as a maxim, that
the existing races, in their respective stages of progression, may
be taken as the bona fide representatives of the races of antiquity ;
and, marvellous as it may appear to us in these days of rapid
progress, their habits and arts, even to the form of their rudest
weapons, have continued in many cases, with but slight modifi-
cations, unchanged throughout countless ages, and from periods
long prior to the commencement of history. They thus afford
us living illustrations of the social customs, the forms of govern-
ment, laws, and warlike practices, which belonged to the ancient
races from which they remotely sprang, whose implements,
resembling, with but little difference, their own, are now found
low down in the soil, in situations, and under circumstances in

1 Le Sieur de Folard, Nouvelles Decouvertes sur la Guerre (Paris, 1724), p. 48.

54 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

which, alone, they would convey but little evidence to the
antiquary, but which, when the investigations of the antiquary
are interpreted by those of the ethnologist, are teeming with
interesting revelations respecting the past history of our race 5
and which, in the hands of the anthropologist, in whose science
that of antiquity and ethnology are combined with physiology
and geology, are no doubt destined to throw a flood of light, if not
eventually, in a great measure, to clear up the mystery, which now
hangs over everything connected with the origin of mankind.

That such a combination of the sciences should have been
brought about so opportunely in our days, appears to me to be
one of those many indications of an overruling power directing
in the aggregate the minds of men, which must, at all
times, strike even the most superficial observer of nature; for
there can be little doubt that in a few years all the most
barbarous races will have disappeared from the earth, or will
have ceased to preserve their native arts.

The law which consigns to destruction all savage races when
brought in contact with a civilization much higher than their
own, is now operating with unrelenting fury in every part of the
world. Of the aborigines of Tasmania, not a single individual
remains; those of New Zealand are fast disappearing. The
Australian savage dies out before the advancing European.
North and South America, and the Polynesian Islands, all tell
the same tale. Wherever the generous influences of Christianity
have set foot, there they have been accompanied by the scourge.
Innumerable and often unseen causes combine in effecting the
same purpose; diseases which are but little felt by Europeans,
act as plagues when introduced into uncivilized communities,
and cause them to fall before their ravages, like wheat before the
sickle; and the vices of civilization, taking a firmer hold of
the savages than its virtues, aid and abet in the same work.
The labours of the missionary, if they have produced no other
benefit, have been useful in teaching us the great truth, that
notwithstanding the philanthropic efforts of the intruding race,
the law of nature must be vindicated. The savage is morally
and mentally an unfit instrument for the spread of civilization,
except when, like the higher mammalia, he is reduced to a state
of slavery; his occupation is gone, and his place is required for

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 55

an improved race. Allowing for the rapidly increasing- ratio in
which progress advances, it is not too much to assume, that
in half a century from the present time, savage life will have
ceased to have a single true representative on the face of the
globe, and the evidence which it has been the means of handing
down to our generation will have perished with it.

When we find that the condition of the aboriginal man must
have been one of such complete inanity as to render him in-
capable of spontaneously initiating even the most rudimentary
arts, it follows as a matter of course that in the earliest stages
of his career, he must, like children of our own day, have been
subject to compulsory instruction. And in looking to nature for
the sources from which such early instruction must have been
derived, we need not, I think, be long in coming to the con-
clusion, that the school of our first parent must be sought for
in his struggles for mastery with the brute creation, and that,
consequently, his first lessons must have been directed to attaining
proficiency in the art of war.

Hence it follows that it is to the lower animals that we must
look for the origin of all those branches of primitive warfare
which it is the object of this lecture to trace out. Nor indeed
shall we fail to find abundant evidence that there is hardly
a single branch of human industry which may not reasonably be
attributed to the same source.

The province of war extends downward through the animal
kingdom, showing unmistakable evidence of its existence in
forms, offensive and defensive, differing but little from those
of the human era, through the unnumbered ages of the geological
periods, long prior to man's advent ; proving, beyond the possi-
bility of doubt, that from the remotest age in which we find
evidence of organized beings, war has been ordained to an
important function in the creative process.

Judging by results, which I apprehend is the only true method
of investigating the phenomena of life, three primary instincts
appear to have been implanted in nearly all the higher animals 1 :

1 In adopting the nomenclature of phrenology, I am not to be understood
as advocating strictly the localization of the faculties which phrenology
prescribes. The mind doubtless consists of a congeries of faculties, and
phrenology affords the best classification of them that has yet been devised.

56 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

alimentiveness, for the sustenance of life ; amativeness, for the
propagation of species ; and combativeness, for the protection of
species, and the propagation by natural selection of the most
energetic breeds; on which latter subject much important
information has been given to the world by Mr. Darwin, in his
celebrated work on the origin of species.

Much might, I believe, be said on the connexion which sub-
sists between these functions, all of which are, in some form or
other, necessary to a healthy condition. Suffice, however, to
observe, that as regards the dawn of an Utopia, in which some
men who think themselves practical appear to indulge ; whether
we study the subject by observing the uses to which animals
apply the various and ingeniously constructed weapons with which
Providence has armed them, or whether we view it in relation to
the prodigious armaments of all the most civilized nations of
Europe, we find no more evidence in nature, of a state of society
in which wars shall cease, than we do of a state of existence in
which we shall support life without food, or propagate our species
by other means than those which nature has appointed.

The universality of the warlike element is shown in the fact,
that the classifications of the weapons of men and animals are
identical, and may be treated under the same heads.

Many constructive arts are brought to greater perfection in
animals by the development of faculties, especially adapting them
to the peculiar implements with which nature has furnished them,
than can be attained by man, and especially by the aboriginal
man, whose particular attribute appears, by all analogy of savage
life, to have been an increase of that imitative faculty which, in
the lower creation, is found only in a modified degree in apes.

The lower creation would thus furnish man not only with the
first element of instruction, but with examples for the improve-
ment of the work commenced, or, to use the words of Pope : —

From the creatures thy instructions take,

Thy arts of building from the bee receive ;

Learn from the mole to plough, the worm to weave ;

Learn from the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oars, and catch the driving gale ;

Here, too, all forms of social reason find,

And hence let reason late instruct mankind.1

1 Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle iii. 172-80

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 57

In the art of war, as we shall see, he would not only derive his
first instruction from the beasts, but he would improve his means
of offence and defence from time to time by lessons derived from
the same source.

It therefore appears desirable that, before entering upon that
branch of the subject which relates to the progress and develop-
ment of the art of war, I should point out briefly the analogies
which exist between the weapons, tactics, and stratagems of
savages and those of the lower creation, and show to what extent
man appears to have availed himself of the weapons of animals
for his own defence.

In so doing the subject may be classified as follows : —

Classification of the Weapons of Animals anal Savages.

Defensive.

Offensive.

Stratagems.

Hides.

Piercing.

Flight.

Solid plates.

Striking.

Concealment.

Jointed plates.

Serrated.

Tactics.

Scales.

Poisoned.

Columns.

Missiles.

Leaders.
Outposts.
Artificial defences.
War cries.

Firstly, with respect to the combative principle itself. The
identity of this instinct in men and animals may be seen in the
widely-spread custom of baiting animals against each other, a
practice which is not derived from any one source, but is in-
digenous in the countries in which it prevails, and arises from
the inherent sympathy which exists between men and animals in
the exercise of this particular function.

In the island of Tahiti, long before the first European vessel
was seen off their shores, the inhabitants were accustomed to
train and right cocks, which were fed with great care, and kept
upon finely-carved perches. x Cock-fighting also prevails amongst
the Malays, Celebes, and Balinese. The Javanese fight their
cocks like the Mahommedans of Hindustan, without spurs ; the
Malays, Bugis, and Macassars with artificial spurs shaped like a

1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches (London, 1829), vol. i. pp. 302-3.

58 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

scythe.1 It also prevails in Central Africa, Central America,
and Peru. The Sumatrans fight their cocks for vast sums;
a man has been known to stake his wife and children, son,
mother, or sister on the issue of a battle, and when a dispute
occurs, the owners decide the question by an appeal to the sword.
In like manner Adrastus, the son of Midas, King of Phrygia, is
said to have killed his brother in consequence of a quarrel which
took place between them in regard to a battle of quails.

When Themistocles led the Greeks out against the Persians,
happening to see two cocks fight, he showed them as an example
to his soldiers. Cock-fighting was afterwards exhibited annually
in presence of the whole people, and the crowing of a cock was
ever after regarded as a presage of victory.2

The Javanese also fight hogs and rams together. The buffalo
and tiger are matched against each other. In Butan the combat
is between two bulls. Combats of elephants took place for the
amusement of the early Indian kings. The Chinese and
Javanese fight quails, crickets, and fish. The Romans fought
cocks, quails, and partridges, also the rhinoceros. In Stamboul
two rams are employed for fighting. The Russians fight geese,
and the betting runs very high upon them.3 We find horses,
elephants, and oxen standing side by side with man in hostile
array, and dogs were used by the Gauls for the same purpose.
Amongst the ancients, the horse, the wolf, and the cock were
offered on the altar of Mars for their warlike qualities.

Who can doubt with these examples before us, that an instinct
so widely disseminated and so identical in men and animals,
must have been ordained for special objects ?

The causes which give rise to the exercise of the function, vary
with the advance of civilization. We have now ceased to take
delight in the mere exhibition of brute combats, but the pro-
fession of war is still held in as much esteem as at any previous
period in the history of mankind, and we bestow the highest
honours of the State upon successful combatants.

This, however, leads to another subject, viz. the causes of war
amongst primitive races, which is deserving of separate treatment.

1 Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago (1820), vol. i. pp. 113-4.

2 Beckman, History of Inventions (London, 1814), pp. 503-4. — Cock-fighting.

3 Stanley, History of Birds (London, 1848), p. 389.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 59

Defensive Weapons.

We may pass briefly over the defensive weapons of animals
and savages, not by any means from the analogy being- less
perfect in this class of weapons, but rather because the similarity
is too obvious to make it necessary that much stress should be
laid on their resemblance.

Hides. The thick hides of pachydermatous animals correspond
to the quilted armour of ancient and semi-civilized races. Some
animals, like the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, are entirely armed
in this way ; others have their defences on the most vulnerable
part, as the mane of the lion, and the shoulder pad of the boar.1
The skin of the tiger is of so tough and yielding a nature, as to
resist the horn of the buffalo when driven with full force against
its sides.2 The condor of Peru has such a thick coating of
feathers, that eight or ten bullets may strike without piercing it.3

According to Thucydides, the Locrians and Acarnanians, being
professed thieves and robbers, were the first to clothe them-
selves in armour.4 But as a general rule it may be said, that the
opinions of ancient writers upon the origin of the customs with
which they were familiar, are of little value in our days. There
is, however, evidence to show that the use of defensive armour is
not usual amongst savages in the lowest stages of culture. It is
not employed, properly speaking, by the Australians, the Bush-
men, the Fuegians, or in the Fiji or Sandwich Islands. But in
other parts of the world, soon after men began to clothe them-
selves in the skins of beasts, they appear to have used the
thicker hides of animals for purposes of defence. When the
Esquimaux apprehends hostility, he takes off his ordinary shirt,
and puts on a deer's skin, tanned in such a manner as to render
it thick for defence, and over this he again draws his ordinary
shirt, which is also of deer-skin, but thinner in substance. The
Esquimaux also use armour of eider drake's skin.5 The Abipones
and Indians of the Grand Chako arm themselves with a cuirass,

1 Darwin, Origin of Species (London, 1859), p. 88.

2 Williamson, Oriental Field Sports (London, 1807), p. 94.

3 Swainson, Habits and Instincts of Animals (London, 1840), p. 142.

* Thuc. i. 5 (but what Thucydides says is, that they were the last to
discard it. — Ed.).
5 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 248.

60 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

greaves, and helmet, composed of the thick hide of the tapir, but
they no longer use it against the musketry of the Europeans.1
The Yucanas also use shields of the same material. The war-
dress of a Patagonian chief from the Museum of the Institution
is exhibited (Plate VII, figs. 11, 12); it is composed of seven
thicknesses of hide, probably of the horse, upon the body, and three
on the sleeves. The chiefs of the Musgu negroes of Central
Africa use for defence a strong doublet of the same kind, made
of buffalo's hide with the hair inside.2 The Kayans of Borneo
use hide for their war-dress, as shown by a specimen belonging to
the Institution (Fig. 13). The skin of the bear and panther is
most esteemed for this purpose.3 The inhabitants of Pulo Nias, an
island off the western coast of Sumatra, use for armour a 'baju'
made of leather. In some parts of Egypt a breastplate was
made of the back of the crocodile (Fig. 14). In the island of
Cayenne, in 1519, the inhabitants used a breastplate of buffalo's
hide.4 The Lesghi of Tartary wore armour of hog's skin.5 The
Indians of Chili, in the seventeenth century, wore corselets, back
and breast plates, gauntlets, and helmets of leather, so hardened,
that it is described by Ovalle as being equal to metal.6 Accord-
ing to Strabo (p. 306), the German Rhoxolani wore helmets, and
breastplates of bull's hide, though the Germans generally placed
little reliance in defensive armour. The Ethiopians used the
skins of cranes and ostriches for their armour.7

We learn from Herodotus that it was from the Libyans the
Greeks derived the apparel and aegis of Minerva, as represented
upon her images, but instead of a pectoral of scale armour, that
of the Libyans was merely of skin.8 According to Smith's
Diet, of Gr. and Roman Antiquities (s.v. lorica), the Greek ' thorax ',

1 Dobrizhoffer, An Account of the Abipones (from the Latin ; London, 1822),
vol. i. p. 262 ; ii. 361.

2 Barth, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1857),
vol. iii. p. 198.

3 Low, Sarawak (London, 1848), p. 328.

4 Pigafetta's Voyage Round the World, Pinkerton, vol. ix. p. 349.

5 William de Rubruquis, Travels into Tartary and China in 1253 ; Pinkerton
(London, 1811), vol. viii. p. 89.

6 An Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Chile, by Alonso de Ovalle, of the
Company of Jesus, 1649 (London, 1752), p. 71.

7 Herodotus, vii. 70 ; Meyrick's Ancient Armour, vol. i. Introd. p. iv.

8 Herodotus, iv. 189 ; Meyrick's Ancient Armour, vol. i. Introd. p. iii.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 61

called orctSios, from its standing erect by its own stiffness, was
originally of leather, before it was constructed of metal. In
Meyrick's Ancient Armour, there is the figure of a suit, supposed
formerly to have belonged to the Rajah of Guzerat (Plate VIII,
fig. 15). The body part of this suit is composed of four pieces
of rhinoceros hide, showing that, in all probability, this was the
material originally employed for that particular class of armour,
which is now produced of the same form in metal, a specimen of
which, from the Museum of the Institution, taken from the
Sikhs, is now exhibited (Fig. 16).

In more advanced communities, as skins began to be replaced
by woven materials, quilted armour supplied the place of hides.
In those parts of the Polynesian Islands in which armour is
used, owing probably to the absence of suitable skins, woven
armour appears to have been employed in a comparatively low
state of society. Specimens of this class of armour from the
Museum of the Institution are exhibited ; they are from the
Kingsmill Islands, Pleasant Island, and the Sandwich Islands. A
helmet from the latter place (PI. VIII, fig. 17) much resembles the
Grecian in form, while the under tippet, from Pleasant Island
(PL VII, fig. 18), may be compared to the pectoral of the
Egyptians (Fig. 19, a and b), which, as well as the head-dress
(PI. VIII, fig. 20), was of a thickly quilted material. The
Egyptians wore this pectoral up to the time of Xerxes, who
employed their sailors, armed in this way, during his expedition
into Greece. Herodotus says that the Indians of Asia wore
a thorax of rush matting.1 In 1514, Magellan 2 found tunics of
quilted cotton, called f laudes ', in use by the Muslims of Guzerat
and the Deccan. An Indian helmet of this description from my
collection (Fig. 21) is exhibited ; in form it resembles the
Egyptian, and an Ethiopian one (Fig. 22), composed of beads of
the same form, brought from Central Africa by Consul Petherick,
is exhibited. Fig. 23 shows that the same form, in India, was
subsequently produced in metal. A suit of quilted armour for-

1 Herodotus, vii. 65 el/xara .... and £v\wv nenoiTjueva.

2 Duarte Barbosa, The Coasts of East Africa and Malabar, translated from the
Spanish, by the Hon. H. E. Stanley (Hakluyt Society, 1866), p. 55. Since
publication, the translator has ascertained that the authorship of this work
should be ascribed to Magellan.

62 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

merly belonging* to Koer Singh, and lately presented to the
Institution by Sir Vincent Eyre, is also exhibited (Plate VII, fig.
24). The body armour and helmet found upon Tippoo Sahib at
his death, which are now in the Museum of the Institution
(Plate IX, fig. 25, a, b, and c), were thickly quilted. Upon the
breast, this armour consists of two sheets of parchment, and nine
thicknesses of padding composed of cocoons of the Sahirnia
mylitta, stuffed with the wool of the Eriodendron anfractuosum,
D.C., neatly sewn together, as represented in fig. 25 1} The
Aztecs and Peruvians also guarded themselves with a wadded
cotton doublet.2 Quilted armour or thick linen corselets were
used by the Persians, Phoenicians, Chalybes, Assyrians, Lusita-
nians, and Scythians, by the Greeks, and occasionally by the
Romans.3 By the Persians it was used much later ; and in
Africa to this day, quilted armour, of precisely the same descrip-
tion, is used both for men and horses by the Bornouese of
Central Africa, and is described by Denham and Clapperton4
(Plate VIII, fig. 26). Plate VII, fig. 27, is a suit of armour in the
Institution, from the Navigator Islands, composed of coco-nut
fibre coarsely netted. Fig. 28 is part of a Chinese jacket of sky-
blue cotton, quilted with enclosed plates of iron; it is precisely

1 The Saturnia mylitta is the caterpillar from which the Tusseh-silk is
obtained ; the cocoon is of an oval shape when suspended upon the tree, and
of exceedingly firm texture ; it is figured in Sir Wm. Jardine's Naturalist's
Library (Edinb. 1841), Entomology, vol. vii. pi. xiv. 2, pp. 146-53. The
Eriodendron anfractuosum, DC, is an Indian Bombax. The woolly cotton
which envelops the seed is remarkable for its softness, and is much and
deservedly esteemed for making cushions and bedding, owing to its freedom
from any tendency to become lumpy and uneven by getting impacted into
hard knots. Various attempts have been made to fabricate it into cloth,
but hitherto without success, except as a very loose material, fit only
for quilting muffs, for which it is superior to cotton or woollen stuffs, the
looseness of its texture rendering it an excellent non-conductor, whilst at
the same time it is extremely light. — Wight, Illustrations of Indian Botany
(Madras, 1840), vol. i. p. 68 ; Roxburgh, Flora Indica (Serampore, 1832), vol. iii.
p. 165 ( = Bombax pentandrum). Both the caterpillar and the plant are
found in the jungle in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam. For the identi-
fication of the vegetable substance, lam indebted toW. Carruthers, Esq., F.L.S.,
British Museum.

s Schoolcraft, Information concerning the History, &c, of the Indian Tribes of the
U. S. A. (Philadelphia, 1851-9), part iii. p. 69.

3 Meyrick, 1. c, vol. i. Introduction.

4 Denham and Clapperton, Travels in Northern and Central Africa (London,
1826), p. 328 (Denham).

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 63

similar to the ' brigandine jacket ' used in Europe in the sixteenth
century", which was composed ,of ' small plates of iron quilted
within some stuff ', and c covered generally with sky-blue cloth \l
This class of armour may be regarded as a link connecting the
quilted with the scale armour, to be described hereafter.

As a material for shields, the hides of animals were employed
even more universally, and up to a later stage of civilization. In
North America the majority of the wild tribes use shields of the
thickest parts of the hides of the buffalo.2 In the New Hebrides
the skin of the alligator is used for this purpose, as appears by
a specimen belonging to the Institution. In Africa the Fans of '
the Gaboon employ the hide of the elephant for their large, rect-
angular shields.3 The Wadi, the Wagogo, and the Abyssinians
in East Africa, have shields of buffalo's hide, or some kind of
leather, like the Ethiopians of the time of Herodotus. The ox-
hide shields of the Greeks are mentioned in Homer's Iliad ;
that of Ajax was composed of seven hides with a coating of brass
on the outside. The spear of Hector is described as piercing six
of the hides and the brass coating, remaining fixed in the seventh
hide.4 The Kaffirs, Bechuanas, Basutos, and others in South
Africa, use the hide of the ox.5 The Kelgeres, Kelowi, and
Tawarek, of Central Africa, employ the hide of the Leucoryx
antelope.6 Shields of the rhinoceros hide, from Nubia, and of
the ox, from Fernando Po, are exhibited. In Asia the Biluchi
carry shields of the rhinoceros horn, and the same material is also
used in East Africa. A specimen from Zanzibar is in the Insti-
tution. In the greater part of India the shields are made of
rhinoceros and buffalo's hide, boiled in oil, until they sometimes
become transparent, and are proof against the edge of a sabre.7

In a higher state of civilization, as the facilities for construct-
ing shields of improved materials increased, the skins of animals
were still used to cover the outside. Thus the negroes of the

1 See Critical Enquiry into Ancient Armour, by Sir Samuel E. Meyrick, vol. iii.
p. 21, and pi. lxviii.

2 Bollaert, ' Observations on the Indian Tribes of Texas,' Journ. Ethno. Soc,
vol. ii. pp. 262-83.

3 Du Chailfu, Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (London, 1861),
p. 80. * Homer, Eiad, vii. 244-8.

5 Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), pp. 135-6.

6 Barth, 1. c, vol. i. p. 355. 7 Meyrick (Skelton), 1. c, pi. cxli (text).

64 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

Gold Coast made their shields of osier covered with leather.1
That of the Kanembu of Central Africa is of wood covered with
leather,2 and very much resembles in form that of the Egyptians,
which, as we learn from Meyrick and others, was also covered
with leather, having the hair on the outside like the shields of
the Greeks.3 The Roman ' scutum' was of wood covered with linen
and sheepskin. According to the author of Horae Ferales, the
Saxon shield was of wood covered with leather ; the same applies
to the Scotch target, and leather was used as a covering for
shields as late as the time of Henry VIII.

Head Crests. The origin of the hairy crests of our helmets is
clearly traceable to the custom of wearing for head-dresses the
heads and hair of animals. The Asiatic EthiojDians used as
a head-covering, the skin of a horse's head, stripped from the
carcase together with the ears and mane, and so contrived, that
the mane served for a crest, while the ears appeared erect upon the
head (Hdt. vii. 70). In the coins representing Hercules, he appears
wearing a lion's skin upon the head. These skins were worn in
such a manner that the teeth appeared grinning at the enemy
over the head of the wearer (as represented in Plate VIII, fig. 29,
which is taken from a bronze in the Blacas collection), a custom
which seems also to have prevailed in Mexico.4 Similar head-
dresses are worn by the soldiers on Trajan's Column. The horns
worn on the heads of some of the North American Indians (Fig.
30), and in some parts of Africa 5, are no doubt derived from this
practice of wearing on the head the skins of animals with their
appendages. The helmet of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was sur-
mounted by two goat's horns. Horns were afterwards repre-
sented in brass, on the helmets of the Thracians (Fig. 31), the
Belgic Gauls, and others. Fig. 32 is an ancient British helmet
of bronze lately found in the Thames, surmounted by straight
horns of the same material.6 Horned helmets are figured

1 Bosman, Guinea, Pinkerton (1811), vol. xvi. p. 414.

2 Barth, 1. c, vol. ii. pp. 410, 526; ii. 116 (plate) ; Denham and Clapperton,
1. c, p. 166 (Denham). s Meyrick, 1. c, vol. i. Introd. pp. i-ii.

4 Meyrick, 1. c, vol. i. Introd. p. xxiv.

5 At Fernando Po. — Cuming, ' Weapons and Armour of Horn,' Journal of
Archaeological Association (London, 1848), vol. iii. p. 30.

6 Fig. 32 is from a rough sketch taken about two years ago, and has no
pretension to accuracy of detail.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 65

on the ancient vases. Fig-. 33 is a Greek helmet having
horns of brass, and traces of . the same custom may still be
observed in heraldry.1

The practice of wearing- head-dresses of feathers, to distinguish
the chiefs from the rank and file, is universal in all parts of the
world, and in nearly every stage of civilization. Amongst the
North American Indians the feathers are cut in a particular
manner to denote the rank of the wearer, precisely in the same
manner that the long feathers of our general officers distinguish
them from those wearing shorter feathers in subordinate ranks.
This custom, Mr. Schoolcraft observes, when describing the head-
dresses of the American Indians, may very probably be derived
from the feathered creation, in which the males, in most of the
cock, turkey, and pheasant tribes, are crowned with bright
crests and ornaments of feathers.2

Solid Plates. It has often struck me as remarkable that the
shells of the tortoise and turtle, which are so widely distributed
and so easily captured, and which would appear to furnish shields
ready made to the hand of man, should seldom, if ever, in so far
as I have been able to learn, be used by savages for that purpose.
This may, however, be accounted for by the fact that broad shields
of that particular form, though common in more advanced civiliza-
tions, are never found in the hands of savages, at least in those
localities in which the turtle, or large tortoise, is available.

It will be seen subsequently, in tracing the history of the
shield, that in the rudest condition of savage life, this weapon
of defence has a history of its own ; that both in Africa and
Australia it is derived by successive stages from the stick or
club, and that the broad shield does not appear to have been
developed until after mankind had acquired sufficient constructive
skill to have been able to form shields of lighter and more
suitable materials than is afforded by the shell of the turtle.
It is, however, evident that in later times the analogy was not
lost sight of, as the word 'testudo'' is a name given by the
Romans to several engines of war having shields attached to
them, and especially to that particular formation of the legionary

1 Meyrick, I. c, vol. i. pi. iv. 10.

2 Schoolcraft, Information concerning the History, &c, of the Indian Tribes of the
U.S.A. (Philadelphia, 1851-9), vol. iii. p. 67.

P.B. P

66 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

troops, in which they approached a fortified building1 with their
shields joined together, and overlapping, like the scaly shell
of the imbricated turtle, which is a native of the Mediterranean
and Asiatic seas.

Jointed Plates. In speaking of the jointed plates, so common to
all the Crustacea, it is sufficient to notice that this class of defence
in the animal kingdom, may be regarded as the prototype of that
peculiar form of armour which was used by the Romans, and to
which the French, at the commencement of the seventeenth cen-
tury, gave the name of c ecrevisse ' , from its resemblance to the
shell of a lobster. The fluted armour, common in Persia, and in
the middle ages of Europe, is also constructed in exact imitation
of the corrugated shell defences of a large class of the Mollusca.

Scale Armour. That scale armour derived its origin from the
scales of animals, there can be little doubt. It has been stated on
the authority of Arrian(2Tac^. 13. 14), that the Greeks distinguished
scale armour by the term kernbeoTos, expressive of its resemblance
to the scales of fish; whilst the jointed armour, composed of long
flexible bands, like the armour of the Roman soldier, and the
' ecrevisse ' of the middle ages, was called </>oAiSa>ros from its
resemblance to the scales of serpents. The brute origin of
scale armour is well illustrated by the breastplate of the
Bugo Dyaks, a specimen of which, from the Museum of
the Institution, is represented in Plate IX, fig. 34. The process
of its construction was described in a notice attached to a
specimen of this armour in the Exhibition of 1862. The scales
of the Pangolin are collected by the Bugis as they are thrown
off by the animal, and are stitched on to bark with small
threads of cane, so as to overlap each other in the same manner
that they are arranged on the skin of the animal. When the
front piece is completely covered with scales, a hole is cut in
the bark for the head of the wearer. The specimen now
exhibited appears, however, to be composed of the entire skin
of the animal. Captain Grant, in his Walk across Africa,
mentions that the scales of the armadillo are in like manner
collected by the negroes of East Africa, and worn in a belt
e three inches across ', as a charm.1

It is reasonable to suppose that the use of scale armour,
1 Grant, Walk across Africa (London, 1864), p. 47.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 67

in most countries, originated in this manner by sewing on to
the quilted armour before described, fragments of any hard
material calculated to give it additional strength. Plate VIII,
fig. 35, is a piece of bark from Tahiti, studded with pieces of
coco-nut stitched on. The Sarmatians and Quadi are described
by Ammianus Marcellinus as being protected by a 'lorica',
composed of pieces of horn, planed and polished, and fastened
like feathers upon a linen shirt.1 Pausanias also, who is
confirmed by Tacitus, says that the Sarmatians had large herds
of horses, that they collected the hoofs, and after preparing them
for the purpose, sewed them together, with the nerves and
sinews of the same animal, so as to overlap each other like
the surface of a fir cone, and he adds, that the ' lorica ' thus formed
was not inferior to that of the Greeks either in strength or
elegance. The Emperor Domitian had, after this model, a cuirass
of boar's hoofs stitched together.2 Fig. 36 represents a frag-
ment of scale armour made of horn, found at Pompeii. A very
similar piece of armour (Fig. 37), from some part of Asia, said
to be from Japan, but the actual locality of which is not known,
is figured in Meyriek's Ancient Armour, pi. hi. 1. It is made
of the hoofs of some animal, stitched and fastened so as to hold
together without the aid of a linen corselet. An ancient stone
figure 3 (Plate IX, fig. 38), having an inscription in a character
cognate to the Greek, but in an unknown language, and
covered with armour of this description, is represented in the
third volume of the Journal of the Archaeological Association.
The Kayans, inhabiting the eastern coast of Borneo, form a kind
of armour composed of little shells placed one overlapping the
other, like scales, and having a large mother-of-pearl shell at
the end. This last portion of the armour is shown in the
figure of the Kayan war-dress already referred to (Plate VII, fig.
13). Plate VIII, fig. 39, is a back- and breast-piece of armour
from the Sandwich Islands, composed of seals' teeth, set like
scales, and united with string.

Similar scales would afterwards be constructed in bronze and

1 Smith, Bid. of Or. and Rom. Antiq., s. v. ; Meyrick, 1. c, vol. i. Introd. p. xiv ;
Amm, Marc. xvii. 12. 2 ; Pausanias, i. 21. 6 ; Tac. Hist. i. 79 (praeduro corio).

2 Kitto, Pictorial Bible (London, 1838-9), note to 1 Sam. xvii.

3 Cuming, Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. iii. p. 31.

F 2

68 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

iron. It was thus employed by the Egyptians (Plate IX, fig. 40),
two scales of which are shown in Fig. 41 ; also by the Persians,
Assyrians, Philistines, Dacians, and most ancient nations.

The armour of Goliath is believed to have been of scales, from
the fact of the word ' kaskassim \ used in the text of 1 Sam.
xvii, being the same employed in Leviticus and Ezekiel, to
express the scales of fish.1 Amongst the Romans, scale armour
was regarded as characteristic of barbarians, but they appear
to have adopted it in the time of the Emperors. A suit of
Japanese armour in my collection shows four distinct systems
of defence, the back and breast being of solid plates, the sleeves
and leggings composed of small pieces of iron, stitched on to
cloth, and united with chain, whilst other portions are quilted
with enclosed pieces of iron (Fig. 42, a and b). Fig. 43, a and b,
is a suit of Chinese armour, in the Museum, having large iron
scales on the inside (Fig. 44). This system was also employed
in Europe. Fig. 45 is the inner side of a suit of fjazerineJ
armour of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, in my collection.
Fig. 46 represents a similar suit in the Museum of the
Institution, probably of the same date, having large scales
of iron on the outside. A last vestige of scale armour may
be seen in the dress of the Albanians, which, like the Scotch
and ancient Irish kilt, and that formerly worn by the Maltese
peasantry, is a relic of costume of the Greek and Roman age.
In the Albanian jacket the scales are still represented in gold
embroidery.2

Offensive Weapons of Men and Animals.

Piercing Weapons. The Gnu of South Africa, when pressed,
will attack men, bending its head downwards, so as to pierce
with the point of its horn.3 The same applies to many of the
antelope tribe. The rhinoceros destroys the elephant with the
thrust of its horn, ripping up the belly (Plate X, fig. 47).
The horn rests on a strong arch formed by the nasal bones ;
those of the African rhinoceros, two in number, are fixed to
the nose by a strong apparatus of muscles and tendons, so that

1 Kitto, Pictorial Bible, note to 1 Sam. xvii.

2 Skene, 'On the Albanians,' Journ. Ethno. Soc, vol. ii. pp. 159-81.

3 Casalis, The Basutos (London, 1861), p. 172.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 69

they are loose when the animal is in a quiescent state, but
become firm and immovable when he is enraged, showing" in an
especial manner that this apparatus is destined for warlike
purposes.1 It is capable of piercing the ribs of a horse, passing
through saddle, padding, and all.2 Mr. Atkinson, in his
Siberian travels, speaks of the tusk of the wild boar, which
in those parts is long, and as sharp as a knife, and he describes
the death of a horse which was killed by a single stroke from
this animal, delivered in the chest.3 The buffalo charges at
full speed with its horn down.4 The bittern, with its beak,
aims always at the eye.5 The walrus (Fig. 48) attacks fiercely
with its pointed tusks, and will attempt to pierce the side
of a boat with them.6 The needle-fish of the Amazons is
armed with a long pointed lance.7 The same applies to the
sword-fish of the Mediterranean and Atlantic (Fig. 49), which,
notwithstanding its food is mostly vegetable, attacks the whale
with its spear-point on all occasions of meeting. There is an
instance on record, of a man, whilst bathing in the Severn near
Worcester, having been killed by the sword-fish.

The weapon of the sword-fish is used as a spear-head by the
wild tribes of Cambodia, and some idea may be formed of its
efficiency for this purpose, and of the confidence with which
it is used, by the following account of an attack on a rhinoceros
with this weapon, by Mons. Mouhot.8 He says : —

fThe manner in which the rhinoceros is hunted by the
Laotians is curious, on account of its simplicity and the skill
they display. . . . They had bamboos, with iron blades, something
between a bayonet and a poignard. The weapon of the chief
was the horn of a sword-fish, long, sharp, strong, supple, and

1 Maunder, Treasury of Natural History (London, 1862), p. 573.

2 Williamson, Oriental Field Sports (London, 1807), p. 46.

3 Atkinson, Oriental and Western Siberia (London, 1858), p. 495.

4 Williamson, Oriental Field Sports (London, 1807), p. 94.

5 Thompson, Passions of Animals (1851), p. 225. The American hunter avails
himself of this peculiarity to entrap the crane by presenting the barrel of his
firelock to the animal ; supposing it to be an eye, the crane immediately
strikes at the hole, and fixes its beak firmly in the muzzle.

6 Beechey, Voyage to the North Pole (London, 1843), pp. 93-4.

T Bates, Naturalist on the Amazons (3rd ed. London, 1873), p. 230.
8 Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Siam, Cambodia, and Laos in 1858-9,
by the late M. Henri Mouhot (London, 1864), vol. ii. p. 147.

70 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

not likely to break. Thus armed, we set off into the thickest
part of the forest, with all the windings of which our leader
was familiar, and could tell with tolerable certainty where we
should find our expected prey. After penetrating nearly two
miles into the forest, we suddenly heard the crackling of
branches, and rustling of the dry leaves. The chief went on in
advance, signing to us to keep a little way behind, but to have
our arms in readiness. Soon our leader uttered a shrill cry,
as a token that the animal was near; he then commenced
striking against each other two bamboo canes, and the men
set up wild yells to provoke the animal to quit his retreat.

' A few minutes only elapsed before he rushed towards us,
furious at having been disturbed. He was a rhinoceros of the
largest size, and opened a most enormous mouth. Without any
sign of fear, but on the contrary of great exultation, as though
sure of his prey, the intrepid hunter advanced, lance in hand,
and then stood still, waiting for the creature's assault. I must
say I trembled for him. and loaded my gun with two balls ; but
when the rhinoceros came within reach, and opened his immense
jaws to seize his enemy1, the hunter thrust his lance into him
to a depth of some feet, and calmly retired to where we were
posted/ After the animal was dead, the chief withdrew his
sword-fish blade, and presented it to Mons. Mouhot.

The narwhal has a still more formidable weapon of the same
kind (PI. X, fig. 50). It attacks the whale, and occasionally the
bottoms of ships, a specimen of the effect of which attack, from
the Museum of the Institution, is represented in Fig. 51. The
Esquimaux, who, in the accounts which they give of their
own customs, profess to derive much experience from the habits
of the animals amongst which they live, use the narwhal's tusk
for the points of their spears. Fig. 52 represents a 'nuguit'
from Greenland, of the form mentioned by Cranz 2 • it is armed
with the point of the narwhal's tusk. Fig. 53, from my col-
lection, has the shaft also of narwhal's tusk ; it is armed with
a metal blade, but it is introduced here in order to show the
association which existed in the mind of the constructor between

1 It is to be observed that this is not the rhinoceros's usual mode of attack.

2 Cranz, Eistorie von fJronland (2nd ed. Barby and Leipzig, 1770), p. 196,
pi. v. 8.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 71

his weapon and the animal from which the shaft is derived, and
for the capture of which it is 'chiefly used. The wooden shaft,
it will be seen, is constructed in the form of the fish, and the
ivory fore-shaft is inserted in the snout in the exact position
of that of the fish itself. At Kotzebue Sound, Captain Beechey x
found the natives armed with lances composed of a walrus tooth
fixed to the end of a wooden staff (Fig. 54). They also employ the
walrus tooth for the points of their tomahawks (Fig. 55). The horns
of the antelope are used as lance-points by the Djibba negroes
of Central Africa, as already mentioned (p. 52), and in Nubia
also by the Shillooks and Dinkas.2 The antelope's horn is also
used in South Africa for the same purpose.3 The argus pheasant
of India4, the wing- wader of Australia5, and the plover of Central
Africa 6, have spurs on their wings, with which they fight ; the
cock and turkey have spurs on their feet, used expressly for
offence. The white crane of America has been known to drive
its beak deep into the bowels of a hunter.7 The Indians of
Virginia, in 1606, are described as having arrows armed with
the spurs of the turkey and beaks of birds.8 In the Christy
collection there is an arrow, supposed to be from South America,
which is armed with the natural point of the deer's horn (Fig. 56).
The war-club of the Iroquois, called GA-NE-U'-GA-O-DUS-H A,
or ' deer-horn war-club', was armed with a point of the deer's
horn (Fig. 57), about 4 inches in length ; since communication
with Europeans, a metal point has been substituted (Fig. 58).
It appears highly probable that the ' martel-de-fer ' of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, which is also used in India and Persia,
may have been derived, as its form indicates, from a horn weapon
of this kind. Horn points suitable for arming such weapons
have been found both in England and Ireland, two specimens of

1 Beechey, Voyage to the North Pole (London, 1843), p. 252.

2 Cuming, Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. iii. p. 25.

3 Ibid., p. 26.

* Swainson, Habits and Instincts of Animals (London, 1840), p. 141.

5 Gregory, ' Expedition to the North-west Coast of Australia,' Royal
Geographical Society's Journal, vol. xxxii (1862), p. 417.

6 Denham and Clapperton, Travels (1826), p. 20 (Denham).

7 Hind, Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition (London, 1860), vol. i.
p. 316.

8 Captain John Smith, Sixth Voyage to Virginia (1606) ; Pinkerton (1811),
vol. xii. p. 35.

72 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

which are in my collection.1 The weapon of the sting-ray, from
the method of using it by the animal itself , should more properly
be classed with serrated weapons, but it is a weapon in general
use amongst savages for spear or arrow points (Fig. 59), for
which it has the particular merit of breaking off in the wound.
It causes a frightful wound, and being sharply serrated, as well
as pointed, there is no means of cutting it out. It is used in
this way by the inhabitants of Gambier Island, Samoa2,
Otaheite 3, the Fiji Islands 4, Pellew Islands 5, and many of the
Low Islands. Amongst the savages of tropical South America,
the blade of the ray, probably the Trygon histrix, is used for
arrow-points.6

In the Batistes capriscus (Fig. 60 a), a rare British fish, the
anterior dorsal is preceded by a strong erectile spine, which
is used for piercing other fishes from beneath. Its base is
expanded and perforated, and a bolt from the supporting plate
passes freely through it. When this spine is raised, a hollow at
the back receives a prominence from the next bony ray, which
fixes the spine in an erect position, as the hammer of a gun-lock
acts at full-cock, and the spine cannot be forced down till this
prominence is withdrawn, as by pulling the trigger. This
mechanism may be compared to the fixing and unfixing of
a bayonet; when the spine is unfixed and bent down, it is
received into a groove on the supporting plate, and offers no
impediment to the progress of the fish through the water.
These fishes are also found in a fossil state, and, to use the words
of Professor Owen, from whose work this description of the
Batistes is borrowed, exemplify in a remarkable manner the
efficacy, beauty, and variety of the ancient armoury of that
order.7 The stickleback is armed in a similar manner, and is
exceedingly pugnacious. The Coitus diceraus, Ball. (Fig. 60#),
has a multi-barbed horn on its back, exactly resembling the
spears of the Esquimaux, South American, and Australian

1 Cuming, Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. iii. p. 27.

2 Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia (London, 1861), p. 276.

3 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1831), vol. i. p. 143.

4 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians (London, 1858), vol. i. p. 57.

5 Wilson, Pellew Islands (ed. Keate, London, 1788), pi. v, fig. 1, p. 310.

6 Klemm, Werkseuge und Waffen (1858), p. 50.

7 Owen, Comp. Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates (1846), vol. ii. 1. p

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 73

savages. The Naseus fronticornis, Lac. (Fig-. 60 c), has also
a spear-formed weapon. The Yellow-bellied Acanthurus is armed
with a spine of considerable length upon its tail.

The Australians of King George's Sound use the pointed fin
of the roach to arm their spears ] ; the inhabitants of New Guinea
also arm their arrows with the offensive horn of the saw-fish,
and with the claw of the cassowary. The sword of the Limulus,
or king-crab, is an offensive weapon ; its habits do not appear to
be well understood, but its weapon is used in some of the Malay-
islands for arrow-points (Fig. 61). The natives of San Salvador,,
when discovered by Columbus, used lances pointed with the teeth
of fish.2 The spine of the Diodon is also used for arrow-points
(Fig. 62). Amongst other piercing weapons suggested by the
horns of animals may be noticed the Indian ' kandjar ' composed
of one side of the horn of the buffalo, having the natural form
and point (Fig. 63). In later times a metal dagger, with ivory
handle, was constructed in the same country (Fig. 64), after the
exact model of the one of horn, the handle having one side flat,
in imitation of the half-split horn, though of course that peculiar
form was no longer necessitated by the material then used. The
same form of weapon was afterwards used with a metal handle
(Fig. 65). The sharp horns of the fsasin', or common antelope,
often steel pointed, are still used as offensive weapons in India
(Figs. 66, 67, 68). Several examples of these are in the Museum
of the Institution. Three stages of this weapon are exhibited,
the first having the natural point, the second a metal point, and
the third a weapon of nearly the same form composed entirely of
metal. The Fakirs and Dervishes, not being permitted by their
profession to carry arms, use the pointed horn of the antelope for
this purpose. Fig. 69 is a specimen from my collection; from
its resemblance to the Dervishes' crutch of Western Asia, I pre-
sume it can be none other than the one referred to in the Journal
of the Archaeological Association, from which I obtained this
information respecting the Dervishes' weapon.3 Mankind would
also early derive instruction from the sharp thorns of trees, with

1 Klemm, I.e., p. 81 ('die Schwanzstachel eines Roches,' i.e. 'the caudal
spine of a ray.'— Ed.).

2 Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 146.

3 Cuming, Journal of the Archaeological Association, vol. iii. p. 26.

74 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

which he must come in contact in his rambles through the
forests ; the African mimosa, the Gledischia, the American aloe,
and the spines of certain palms, would afford him practical
experience of their efficacy as piercing weapons, and accordingly
we find them often used by savages in barbing their arrows.1

Striking Weapons. Many animals defend themselves by blows
delivered with their wings or legs ; the giraffe kicks like a horse
as well as strikes sideways with its blunt horns ; the camel
strikes with its fore legs and kicks with its hind legs ; the
elephant strikes with its proboscis and tramples with its feet ;
eagles, swans, and other birds strike with their wings ; the
swan is said to do so with sufficient force to break a man's leg ;
the cassowary strikes forward with its feet ; the tiger strikes a
fatal blow with its paw ; the whale strikes with its tail, and
rams with such force, that the American whaler Essex is said
to have been sunk by that animal.2 There is no known
example of mankind in so low a state as to be unacquainted
with the use of artificial weapons. The practice of boxing with
the fist, however, is by no means confined to the British Isles as
some people seem to suppose, for besides the Romans, Lusi-
tanians3, and others mentioned in classical history, it prevailed
certainly in the Polynesian islands4 and in Central Africa.5

Serrated Weapons. This class of weapons in animals corre-
sponds to the cutting weapons of men. Amongst the most
barbarous races, however, as amongst animals, no example of a
cutting weapon is found6 : although the Polynesian islanders
make very good knives of the split and sharpened edges of
bamboo, and the Esquimaux, also, use the split tusk of the walrus

1 The probability of the aboriginal man having derived his first lessons
from this source may be judged of by the accounts given by travellers of the
effects produced by the large thorns of trees in South Africa, of which there
is a good account in Routledge's Natural History of Man, by Rev. J. G-. Wood
(1868-70), vol. i. p. 235. Large animals are said to be frequently destroyed,
and even to have impaled themselves, upon the large, strong spines of the
thorny Acacia. Throughout Central Africa a pair of tweezers for extracting
thorns is an indispensable requisite in the equipment of every native.

2 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1831), vol. i. pp. 47-8.

3 Strabo, p. 155.

* Ellis, Polynesian Researches (London, 1829), vol. i. chap. viii.

5 Clapperton, Travels, p. 58.

6 I exclude from this category all nippers, cross-bills, and prehensile
implements.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 75

as a knife, these cannot be regarded, nor, indeed, are they used, as
edged weapons. These, strictly speaking, are confined to the metal
age, and their place, in the earliest stages of civilization, is
supplied by weapons with serrated, or saw-like edges.

Perhaps the nearest approach in the animal kingdom to an
edged weapon is the fore-arm of the mantis, a kind of cricket,
used by the Chinese and others in the East for their amusement.
Their combats have been compared to that of two soldiers fight-
ing with sabres. They cut and parry with their fore-arms, and,
sometimes, a single stroke with these is sufficient to decapitate^
or cut in two the body of an antagonist. But on closer inspec-
tion, these fore-arms are found to be set with a row of strong
and sharp spines, similar to those of all other animals that are
provided with this class of weapon. The snout of the saw-fish
is another example of the serrated weapon. Its mode of attack-
ing the whale is by jumping up high in the air, and falling on
the animal, not with the point, but with the sides of its formid-
able weapon, both edges of which are armed with a row of sharp
horns, set like teeth, by means of which it rasps a severe cut in
the flesh of the whale. The design in this case is precisely
analogous to that of the Australian savage, who throws his
similarly constructed spear so as to strike, not with the bone
point, but with its more formidable edges, which are thick set
with a row of sharp-pointed pieces of obsidian, or rock-crystal.
The saw-fish is amongst the most widely distributed of fishes,
belonging to the arctic, antarctic, and tropical seas. It may,
therefore, very possibly have served as a model in many of the
numerous localities in which this character of weapon is found in
the hands of savages. The snout itself is used as a weapon by
the inhabitants of New Guinea, the base being cut and bound
round so as to form a handle. Plate XI, fig. 70, is a specimen
from the Museum of the Institution. The weapon of the sting-
ray, though used by savages for spear-points, more properly
belongs to this class, as the mode of its employment by the
animal itself consists in twisting its long, slender tail round the
object of attack, and cutting the surface with its serrated edge.1

1 Jardine's Naturalist's Library (Edinb. 1843) : Ichthyology (Hamilton), vol. vi,
part 2, p. 335.

76 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

The teeth of all animals, including" those of man himself, also
furnish examples of serrated weapons.

When we find models of this class of weapon so widely dis-
tributed in the lower creation, it is not surprising- that the first
efforts of mankind in the construction of trenchant implements,
should so universally consist of teeth or flint flakes, arranged
along* the edges of staves or clubs, in exact imitation of the
examples which he finds ready to his hand, in the mouths of the
animals which he captures, and on which he is dependent for his
food. Several specimens of implements, edged in this manner
with sharks' teeth, from the Museum of the Institution, are repre-
sented in Plate XI, figs. 71, 72, 73, 74. They are found chiefly in
the Marquesas, in Tahiti, Depeyster's Island, Byron's Isles, the
Kingsmill Group, Radak Island 1J and the Sandwich Islands 2,
also in New Zealand (Fig. 75). They are of various shapes, and are
used for various cutting1 purposes, as knives, swords, and glaves.
Two distinct methods of fastening the teeth to the wood prevail in
the Polynesian Islands ; firstly, by inserting them in a groove cut
in the sides of the stick or weapon ; and secondly, by arranging
the teeth in a row, along the sides of the stick, between two
small strips of wood on either side of the teeth, lashed on to
the staff, in all cases, with small strings, composed of plant fibre.
The points of the teeth are usually arranged in two opposite
directions on the same staff, so that a severe cut may be given
either in thrusting or withdrawing the weapon.3

A similarly constructed implement, also edged with sharks'
teeth, was found by Captain Graah on the east coast of Green-
land, and is mentioned in Dr. King's paper on the industrial
arts of the Esquimaux, in the Journal of the Ethnological
Society.^ The teeth in this implement were secured by small
nails, or pegs of bone ; it was also used formerly on the West
Coast. A precisely similar implement (Fig. 76), but showing an
advance in art by being set with a row of chips of meteoric iron,

1 Choris, Voyage Pictoresque autour du Monde (Paris, 1822), 'Isles Radak,'
pi. ii. 1 and 4.

2 Cook, Third Voyage (London, 1842), vol. ii. p. 251.

3 Klemm, 1. c. , pp. 63-4 ; Wilkes, Untied States Exploring Expedition (Philadel-
phia, 1845), vol. v. ch. ii. pp. 49, 79.

4 King, ' The Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux,' Journ. Ethno. Soc. (1848),
vol. i. p. 290.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 77

was found amongst the Esquimaux o£ Davis Strait, and is now
in the department of meteorolites in the British Museum.
Others, of the same nature, from Greenland, are in the Christy
collection (Fig. 77). The 'pacho' of the South Sea Islands
appears to have been a sort of club, armed on the inner side with
sharks'* teeth, set in the same manner.1 The Tapoyers, of
Brazil, used a kind of club, which was broad at the end, and set
with teeth and bones, sharpened at the point.2

Hernandez gives an account of the construction of the Mexi-
can ' maquahuilt ' or Aztec war-club, which was armed on both
sides with a row of obsidian flakes, stuck into holes, and fastened
with a kind of gum (Fig. 78).3 Herrera, the Spanish historian,
also mentions these as swords of wood, having a groove in the
fore part, in which the flints were strongly fixed with bitumen
and thread.4 In 1530, according to the Spanish historians,
Copan was defended by 30,000 men, armed with these weapons,
amongst others 5 ; and similar weapons have been represented in
the sculptures of Yucatan.6 They are also represented in Lord
Kingsborough's important work on Mexican antiquities, from
which the accompanying representations are taken (Figs. 78, 79,
80). One of these swords, having six pieces of obsidian on each
side of the blade, is to be seen in a Museum in Mexico.

In the burial mounds of Western North America, Mr. Lewis
Morgan, the historian of the Iroquois,7 mentions that rows of
flint flakes have been found lying, side by side, in order, and
suggesting the idea that they must have been fastened into
sticks in the same manner as those of Mexico and Yucatan.

Throughout the entire continent of Australia the natives arm
their spears with small sharp pieces of obsidian, or crystal, and
recently of glass, arranged in rows along the sides near the
point, and fastened with a cement of their own preparation,
thereby producing a weapon which, though thinner in the shaft,

1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. ii. p. 497.

2 Nieuhoff, ' Travels in Brazil' ; Pinkerton (1813), vol. xiv. p. 874.

3 Tylor, Anahuac, p. 332, Appendix.

1 Wilson, Prehistoric Man (1862), vol. i. pp. 226, 227.

5 Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, p. 59.

6 Wilson, Prehistoric Man (1862), vol. i. pp. 226, 227.

7 Lewis Morgan, The League of the Ho- De-No- Sou-Nee or Iroquois (Rochester,
N.Y., 1851), p. 359.

78 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

is precisely similar in character to those already described (Fig's.
81 and 82). Turning again to the northern hemisphere, we find
in the Museum of Professor Nilsson, at Lund, in Sweden, a
smooth, sharp-pointed piece of bone, found in that country,
about six inches long, grooved on each side to the depth of about
a quarter of an inch, into each of which grooves a row of fine,
sharp-edged, and slightly-curved flints were inserted, and fixed
with cement. The instrument thus armed was fastened to the
end of a shaft of wood, and might either have been thrown by
the hand or projected from a bow (Fig. 83). Another precisely
similar implement (Fig. 84) is represented in the illustrated
Catalogue of the Museum at Copenhagen, showing that in both
these countries this system of constructing trenchant implements
was employed. In Ireland, although there is no actual evidence
of flints having been set in this manner, yet from the numerous
examples of this class of weapon that are found elsewhere, and
the frequent occurrence of flint implements of a form that would
well adapt them to such a purpose, the author of the Catalogue
of the Royal Irish Academy expresses his opinion that the same
arrangement may very possibly have existed in that country,
and that the wood in which they were inserted may, like that
which, as I have already said, is supposed to have held the flints
found in the graves of the Iroquois, have perished by decay.

Poisoned Weapons. It is unnecessary to enter here into a
detailed account of the use of poison by man and animals. Its
use by man as a weapon of offence is chiefly confined to those
tropical regions in which poisonous herbs and reptiles are most
abundant. It is used by the Negroes, Bushmen, and Hottentots
of Africa ; in the Indian Archipelago, New Hebrides, and New
Caledonia. It appears formerly to have been used in the South
Seas. It is employed in Bootan ; in Assam ; by the Stiens of Cam-
bodia ; and formerly by the Moors of Mogadore. The Parthians
and Scythians used it in ancient times ; and it appears always to
have been regarded by ancient writers as the especial attribute of
barbarism. The Italian bravoes of modern Europe also used it.
In America it is employed by the Darian Indians, in Guiana,
Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, and on the Orinoco. The composition
of the poison varies in the different races, the Bushmen and
Hottentots using the venomous secretions of serpents and cater-

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 79

pillars/ whilst most other nations of the world employ the
poisonous herbs of the different countries they inhabit, showing
that in all probability this must have been one of those arts
which, though of very early origin, arose spontaneously and
separately in the various quarters of the globe, after the human
family had separated. This subject, however, is deserving of a
separate treatment, and will be alluded to elsewhere.

In drawing a parallel between the weapons of men and animals
used in the application of poison for offensive purposes, two points
of similitude deserve attention.

Firstly, the poison gland of many serpents is situated on the
upper jaw, behind and below the eyes. A long excretory duct
extends from this gland to the outer surface of the upper jaw,
and opens above and before the poison teeth, by which means the
poison flows along the sheath into the upper opening of the tooth
in such a manner as to secure its insertion into the wound. The
hollow interior of the bones with which the South American and
other Indians arm the poisoned arrows secures the same object
(Fig. 85) ; it contains the poisonous liquid, and provides a channel
for its insertion into the wound. In the bravo's dagger of Italy,
a specimen of which from my collection is shown in Fig. 86,
a similar provision for the insertion of the poison is effected by
means of a groove on either side of the blade, communicating
with two rows of small holes, into which the poison flows, and is
retained in that part of the blade which enters the wound.
Nearly similar blades, with holes, have been found in Ireland,
of which a specimen is in the Academy's Museum, and they
have been compared with others of the same kind from India,
but I am not aware that there is any evidence to show that they
were used for poison. Some of the Indian daggers, however,
are constructed in close analogy with the poison apparatus of
the serpent's tooth, having an enclosed tube running down the
middle of the blade, communicating with a reservoir for poison
in the handle, and having lateral openings in the blade for the
diffusion of the poison in the wound. Similar holes, but without
any enclosed tube, and having only a groove on the surface of

1 Thunberg, Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, 1770-9 (3rd ed., London,
1795), vol. i. p. 156 ; ii. p. 162 ; Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches
in South Africa (London, 1857), p. 171.

80 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

the blade to communicate with the holes, are found in some of the
Scotch dirks, and in several forms of couteau de chasse, in which
they appear to have been used merely with a view of letting air
into the wound, and accelerating- death (Figs. 87 a and b). The
Scotch dirk, here represented, has a groove running from the
handle along the back of the blade to within three and a half inches
of the point. In the bottom of this groove ten holes are pierced,
which communicate with other lateral holes at right angles, opening
on to the sides of the blade. Daggers are still made at Sheffield
for the South American market, with a small hole drilled through
the blade, near the point, to contain the poison ; and in my col-
lection there is an iron arrow-point (Fig. 88), evidently formed of
the point of one of these daggers, having the hole near the point.

It often happens that forms which, in the early history of an
art, have served some specific object, are in later times applied
to other uses, and are ultimately retained only in the forms
of ornamentation. This seems to have been the case with the
pierced work upon the blades of weapons which, intended
originally for poison, was afterwards used as air-holes, and
ultimately for ornament only, as appears by a plug bayonet
of the commencement of the eighteenth century in the Tower
Armoury, No. 390 of the official Catalogue, for a drawing of
which, as well as that of the Scotch dirk, I am indebted to Captain
A. Tupper, a member of the Council of this Institution.

The second point of analogy to which I would draw attention
is that of the multi-barbed arrows of most savages to the multi-
barbed stings of insects, especially that of the bee (Fig. 89),
which is so constructed that it cannot usually be withdrawn, but
breaks off with its poisonous appendage into the wound. An
exact parallel to this is found in the poisoned arrows of savages
of various races, which, as already mentioned, are frequently
armed with the point of the sting-ray, for the express purpose of
breaking in the wound. In the arrows of the Bushmen, the
shaft is often partly cut through, so as to break when it comes in
contact with a bone, and the barb is constructed to remain in the
wound when the arrow is withdrawn (Fig. 90). The same
applies to the barbed arrows used with the Malay blowpipe
(Fig. 91), and those of the wild tribes of Assam (Fig. 92), which
are also poisoned. The arrow-points of the Shoshones of North

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 81

America (Fig. 93), said to be poisoned, are tied on, purposely, with
gut in such a manner as to rema'in when the arrow is withdrawn.
The arrows of the Macoushie tribe of Guiana (Fig. 94) are made
with a small barbed and poisoned head, which is inserted in
a socket in the shaft, in which it fits loosely, so as to detach
in the wound. This weapon appears to form the link between
the poisoned arrow and the fishing arrow or harpoon, which
is widely distributed, and which I propose to describe on a subse-
quent occasion. Mr. Latham, of Wilkinson's, Pall Mall, has
been kind enough to describe to me a Venetian dagger of glass,
formerly in his possession ; it had a tube in the centre for the
poison, and the blade was constructed with three edges. By
a sharp wrench from the assassin, the blade was broken off, and
remained in the wound.

It has also been supposed that from their peculiar construction
most of the triangular and concave-based arrow-heads of flint
that are found in this country, and in Ireland, were constructed
for a similar purpose (Fig. 95).

The serrated edges of weapons, like those of the bee and the
sting-ray, when used as arrow-points, were likewise instrumental
in retaining the poison and introducing it into the wound, and
this form was copied with a similar object in some of the
Florentine daggers above mentioned, a portion of the blade of
one of which, taken from Meyrick's Ancient Arms and Armour,
is shown in Fig. 96. 1

Although the use of poison would in these days be scouted by
all civilized nations as an instrument of war, we find it still
applied to useful purposes in the destruction of the larger
animals. The operation of whaling, which is attended with
so much danger and difficulty, has of late been greatly facilitated
by the use of a mixture of strychnine and f woorali ', the well-
known poison of the Indians of South America. An ounce of
this mixture, attached to a small explosive shell fired from
a carbine, has been found to destroy a whale in less than eighteen
minutes, without risk to the whaler.2

When we. consider how impotent a creature the aboriginal
and uninstructed man must have been, when contending with

1 Meyrick (Skelton), Ancient Arms and Armour, vol. ii. pi. cxiii, fig. 14,
cf. fig. 13. a Times newspaper, Dec. 24, 1866.

p.e. G

82 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

the large and powerful animals with which he was surrounded,
we cannot too much admire that provision of nature which
appears to have directed his attention, during the very earliest
stages of his existence, to the acquirement of the subtile art of
poisoning. In the forests of Guiana there are tribes, such as the
Otomacs, apparently weaponless, but which, by simply poisoning
the thumb-nail with ' curare ' or ' woorali ' , at once become
formidable antagonists.1 Poison is available for hunting as
well as for warlike purposes : the South American Indians eat
the monkeys killed by this means, merely cutting out the part
struck,2 and the wild tribes of the Malay peninsula do not even
trouble themselves to cut out the part before eating.3 The
Bushmen, and the Stiens of Cambodia, use their poisoned
weapons chiefly against wild beasts and elephants.

Thus we see that the most noxious of herbs and the most
repulsive of reptiles have been the means ordained to instruct
mankind in what, during the first ages of his existence, must
have been the most useful of arts. We cannot now determine
how far this agent may have been influential in exterminating
those huge animals, the Mephas primigenius and Rhinoceros
tichorhinus , with the remains of which the earliest races of
man have been so frequently associated, and which, in those
primaeval days, before he began to turn his hand to the
destruction of his own species, must have constituted his most
formidable enemies.

Missiles. Amongst the offensive weapons of animals, the
use of missiles cannot be altogether excluded, although the
examples of their use by the lower creation are extremely rare.
Some species of cuttle-fish have the power of ejecting water
with a good aim.4 The Toxotes, or archer-fish, obtains its
name from its faculty of projecting drops of water at insects
some three or four feet from the surface of the water ;
which it seldom fails to bring down. The llama has a habit of
ejecting its saliva, but I am not aware of the object of this
singular practice. I only know from experience that its manners

1 Humboldt, Aspects of Nature (London, 1849), vol. i. pp. 25, 203-4.

2 Klemm, 1. c, p. 53.

3 ' On the Wild Tribes in the Interior of the Malay Peninsula,' by Pere
Bourien. Trans. Ethno. Soc, N.S., vol. iii (1865), p. 78.

4 Darwin, Journal of Researches into Nat. Hist, and Geology (London, 1845), p. 8.

i] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 83

are offensive, and that it has the power of spitting with a good
aim and for some distance. The porcupine has the power of
throwing its quills, and is said to do so with effect, although
it is not now believed to dart them with any hostile intention.
The Polar bear is described in Captain HalPs recent publication
as an animal capable of capturing the walrus by missile force.1
It is said that the bear will take advantage of an overhanging
cliff, under which its prey is seen asleep upon the ice, to throw
down, with its paws, large stones, and with such good aim as to
hit the walrus on the head, after which, running down to the
place where the animal lays stunned, it will take the stone
to beat out its brains. That animals are instinctively acquainted
with the force of gravitation is evident by their avoiding
precipices that would endanger them, and it certainly requires
a slight (but at the same time most important) advance upon
this knowledge, to avail themselves of large stones for such
purposes as are here attributed to the bear; but as the story
only rests on the authority of the Esquimaux, it must, I think —
although they certainly are careful observers of the habits of
animals — be rejected, until confirmed by the direct testimony
of white men. It has even been doubted whether the alleged
habit of monkeys, in throwing coco-nuts at their pursuers, has
not arisen from the mistake of the hunter in supposing that
fruit accidentally detached from their stalks by the gambols
of these animals in the trees, may have been intended as missiles ;
but it appears now to be clearly established that monkeys have
the intelligence, not only to throw stones, but even to use them
in breaking the shells of nuts. Major Denham, in his account
of his travels in Central Africa, near Lake Tshad, says : ' The
monkeys, or as the Arabs say, men enchanted, "Beny Adam
meshood," were so numerous, that I saw upwards of 150
assembled in one place in the evening. They did not at all
appear inclined to give up their ground, but perched on the
top of a bank, some 20 feet high, made a terrible noise, and
rather gently than otherwise, pelted us as we approached within
a certain distance/ This, I think, is clear evidence of a combined
pelting on the part of these untutored animals.

The monkey thus furnishes us with the only example of the
1 Hall, C. F., Life with the Esquimaux (London, 1864), vol. ii. pp. 329-30.

G 3

84 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

use of any external substance for offensive purposes, by any
member of the animal kingdom. All others, except, perhaps,
the missile fishes above described, use, for offence and defence,
the weapons with which nature has furnished them, and which
are integral parts of their persons. It is this which so essentially
distinguishes man from the lower creation. Man is the tool-
using animal. We hare no knowledge of man, in any state of
existence, who is not so; nor have we (with the exception of
the ape, the link indirectly connecting him with the lower
creation, in the same manner that the savage connects the
civilized with the aboriginal man, both being branches from
the same stem) any knowledge of animals that employ tools
or weapons. Herein lies the point of separation, which, in so
far as the material universe is concerned, marks the dawn
of a new dispensation. Hitherto Providence operates directly
on the work to be performed, by means of the living, animated
tool. Henceforth, it operates indirectly on the progress and
development of creation, first, through the agency of the
instinctively tool-using savage, and by degrees, of the intelligent
and reasoning man.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES TT-XI

[Revised and abridged from the ' Description ' appended to the original text. The
roman numeral refers to the Plate on which the figure is printed.']

1. a. Adze of iron, constructed by Captain Cook's armourer for the use of

the natives of Tahiti, o. Adze of stone, Tahitian, used as model in
making the above. Meyrick ^Skelton\ Engraved Illustrations of Ancient
Arms and Armour (1830), vol. ii. pi. cxlix. Plate VX

2. a. Pipe-handled Tomahawk, of European manufacture, constructed for the

use of North American Indians. (Mus. R.TJ. S. Inst.) Meyrick (Skelton).
1. c, vol. ii. pi. exlix. I. Pipe and Tomahawk of pipe-stone, used by the
Dacotas of N. America. Schoolcraft, Information concerning the History, ttc,
of the Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. ii pi. lxix. VL

3. Maeotian, or Scythian Bow, from a vase-painting. Hamilton, Etruscan

A)itiquities, voL iv. pi. cxvi ; Meyrick, Critical Enquiry into Ancient Armour
(1824\ vol. i. pL ii. 14 : Eawlinson, Herodotus (1862), vol. iii. pp. 3, 35. VI.

4. Bow of the Tartar tribes on the borders of Persia. (Mus. B. U. S. Inst.

Meyrick (Skelton), 1. c, vol. ii. pi. cxliv. VL

5. Iron Sword {minus the wooden handle) and War- Axe of native manu-

facture, constructed by the Fans of the Gaboon country. West Africa.
(Author's Collection ; similar spec, in Mus. E. U. S. Inst.) The patterns
of ornamentation are taken partly from the Fan War- Axe, and partly
from iron knives brought from Central Africa by Mr. Petherick.
(Author's Coll.) VI.

']

PRIMITIVE WARFARE

6. Leaf-shaped Bronze Sword (minus the handle), from Ireland (Author's

Coll.) ; and a Bronze Celt (Mainz Mus.), Lindenschmit, Die AllerthiXmer
unserer heidnischen Vorzeit (1864 ffi). The patterns of ornamentation are
taken partly from Lindenschmit, I.e., pi. iii. ; partly from Irish bronze-
work in Sir W. Wilde, Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy
(1863), Bronze, pp. 389-90. VI.

7. ' Manilla,' or ring-money of copper and iron, used in the Eboe country, W.

Africa. (Author's Coll.) In 1836, a ship laden with a quantity of these
' manillas ', made in Birmingham, after the pattern in use in Africa
(the spec, here figured forming part of the cargo), was wrecked on the
coast of co. Cork. By this means their exact resemblance to the gold and
bronze ' penannular rings ' found in Ireland (Fig. 8) attracted the atten-
tion of Mr. Sainthill, of Cork, by whom the subject was communicated to
the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, No. 19 (July, 1857). VI.

8. 'Penannular King,' found in Ireland. Wilde, I.e., Bronze, p. 570, Gold,

p. 53. Similar forms are found in England and on the Continent.
Lindenschmit, pi. iv ; Keller, Lake Dwellings of Switzerland (tr. Lee,
1866), pi. Iii a, fig. 9. VI.

9. Kaffir Assegai-head of iron, of native manufacture, with section of blade.

(Mus. E. U. S. Inst.) VI.

10. Saxon Spear-head of iron, having the same section as fig. 9 ; from a Saxon

grave. Neville, Saxon Obsequies (London, 1852), pi. xxxv ; Akerman,
Saxon Pagandom (London, 1S55), Introd., p. x. VI.

11. War-dress of a Patagonian Chief, composed of seven thicknesses of hide

on the body part, and three on the sleeves. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) VII.

1 2. Section of the above, upon the breast, showing how the seven thicknesses

are united at the top. VII.

13. Kayan Cuirass of untanned hide, with the hair outside ; and Helmet of

cane wickerwork. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst. ; pres. by Capt. D. Bethune,
R.N.) VII.

14. Egyptian Breast-plate, made of a crocodile's back. Meyrick (Skelton),

I.e., vol. ii.pl. cxlviii. VII.

15. Suit of Armour, supposed to have formerly belonged to the Rajah of Guzerat.

The four breast- and back-pieces are of rhinoceros hide, having an inscrip-
tion upon them, beginning with. an invocation to Ali. The remaining
portions are of black velvet, ornamented with brass studs, and padded.
Meyrick (Skelton), 1. c, vol. ii. pi. cxli. VIII.

16. Four Plates of steel (Sikh), of similar form to those of rhinoceros hide

in fig. 15, ornamented with patterns of inlaid gold. They are fastened
with straps over a coat of chain-armour, and are called in Persian
'char aineh,' i.e. 'the four mirrors.' (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) VIII.

17. Helmet of basket-work, from the Sandwich Islands, resembling the

Grecian in form. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst. ; presented by H. Shelley, Esq.)

VIII.

18. Suit of Armour of coco-nut fibre, from Pleasant Island, in the Pacific. It is

probable that the under tippet, which is now attached to the back- and
breast-piece at the top, may originally have been intended to be worn
round the loins, like a kilt. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) VII.

19. a. Quilted Pectoral of the Egyptians. Meyrick, 1. c, vol. i. pi. i. o. shows

the manner in which it was worn. Rawlinson, Herodotus (1S62), vol. iv.
p. 47, No. iii. 3 (but this figure is Kheta, not Egyptian. — Ed.). VII.

20. Quilted Head-dress of the Egyptian soldiers. Meyrick, I.e., vol. i. pi. i.

VIII.

21. Quilted Helmet of nearly the same form as fig. 20, from India. (Author's

Coll.) VIII.

22. Head-dress of nearly the same form as figs. 20, 21, from the Nouaer tribe

of Negroes, inhabiting both banks of the Nile from 8° to 10° N. lati-
tude ; brought to England by Mr. Petheriek. It resembles the Egyptian
very closely, and is composed of cylindrical white beads of European
manufacture, fastened together with a kind of string. (Author's Coll.)

VIII.

86 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

23. Helmet of the same form as fig. 21. composed of united mail and plate.

formerly belonging to the Body-guard of the Moguls. (Author's ColL)

vm.

24. Suit of Quilted Armour, taken in action from Koer Singh, the famous

Rajpoot Chief, of Jugdespore in Behar, on August 12. 1857. by Major
Yincent Eyre, commanding the field force that relieved Arrah. (Mus.
B. 17. S. Inst. : presented by the captor." Vll.

25. a. Suit of Quilted Armour, found upon the body of Tippoo Sahib at his

death, in the breach of Seringapatam. ^Mus. B. U. S. Inst.) IX.

o. Bortion of one of the nine thicknesses of quilting, of the above, show-
ing construction (see p. 62 : reduced to -J. IX.

c. Helmet of the above suit. vMus. B. U. S. Inst.") IX.

26. Quilted Armour of the Bornouese Cavalry. Denham and Clapperton,

Travels in Xorthern and Central Africa (1326 " p. 32S Denham). YIH.

27. Suit of Armour from the Xavigator Islands, composed of coco-nut fibre.

coarsely netted. Mus. B. U. S. Inst. ; presented by Sir TV. Burnett,
M.D.1 Similar armour is used in the Kingsmill Group. TTL

28. Bart of a Chinese ' Brigandine Jacket ' of cotton, quilted, with enclosed

plates of metaL (Mus. B. U. S. Inst.) VII.

29. Head-dress of Hercules wearing the Lion's Skin, from a Bronze in the

Blacas Collection. (British Museum.) VIII.

30. Head-dress of a North American Chief. Schoolcraft, L c, voL iii.

p. 68. pi. x. 2. YJJL

31. Thracian Helmet of brass [?], with horns of the same. Meyriek, L c,

vol L pi. iiL VIII.

32. Ancient British Helmet of bronze, with straight horns of the same,

found in the Thames. (British Museum.) TILL

33. Greek Helmet, having horns of trass ('?(. Meyriek, 1. c. vol. i.pL iv. VIII.

34. Back-plate and Breast-plate of the Bugo Dvaks, armed with the scales of

the Bangolin. Mus. B. U. S. Inst.) IX.

35. Biece of Bark from Tahiti, studded with pieces of coco-nut shell.

l^Mus. E. U. S. Inst/ VIIL

35. Fragment of Scale- Armour of horn found at Bompeii. [Pictorial Gallery of

Arts, voL i. figs. 10, 61.] VIII.

37. Biece of Scale-Armour, made of the hoofs of some animal, from some

part of Asia ; said to be from Japan. Meyriek, I.e., vol. L pi. iii. YIH.

38. An ancient Stone Eisure in Scale Armour. Coming, Journ. Archaed. Assoc,

voL iii. p. 31. IX

39. Back-piece and Breast-piece of Armour from the Sandwich Islands, com-

posed of seals' teeth. (Mas. E. V. S. Inst. : pres. by H. Shelley, Esq. YTLT.

40. Egyptian Suit of Scale- Armour. Bawlinson, Herodotus (1862), voL ii.

p. 65, fig. iii ; Wilkinson ^Birch', Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians (1S7S\ fig. 53 a. IX.

41. Two Scales of Egyptian Armour, enlarged. Bawlinson, 1. c. , fig. iv. TV.

42. Japanese Armour, composed of chain, plate, and enclosed quilted plates.

Left arm ; b) Greaves. (Author's ColL) IX

43. a. Chinese Suit of Armour, of cotton, having iron scales attached to the

inside, b. Iron Helmet of the same suit (Mas. B. U. S. Inst. : presented
by Capt. Sir E. Belcher. E.>V. IX

44. A portion of the iron scales attached to the inner side of the above suit. TX.

45. Breast-piece of ' Jazerine' Armour of iron scales, xv-xvi cent.; inner side.

^Author's ColL) Cf. Grose, Treatise on Ancient Armour (London. 1786), p. 15,
' Jazerant ' : ef. pL xxxh'i. 3 ; Meyriek. voL iL pL lvL IX.

46. ' Brigandine ' composed of large iron scales on the outside, probably of

the same date as the above ; left by the Venetians in the armoury of
Candia on the surrender of the island to the Turks in 1715. ^Mus.
B. U. S. Inst. ; presented by Lt.-Col. Batrick Campbell, R.A) IX.

47. Horn of the Bhinoceros. (Author's ColL" X

48. Skull and Tusks of the Walrus. (Author's ColL' X.

49. Weapon of the Sword- Fish : scale \ inch to a foot. (Author's Coll.) X.

50. Spear of the Xarwhal ; scale ^ inch to a foot. (Author's ColL) X.

»]

PRIMITIVE WARFARE 87

51. Section, showing part of the timber of the ship Fame, where it was

pierced by the narwhal in the South Seas, through 2^-inch oak. (Mus.
E. U. S. Inst. ; presented by Lt.- A. T. Tulloch, R.A.) X.

52. Esquimaux Spear, from Greenland, armed with the spear of the nar-

whal, fa. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) X.

53. Esquimaux Spear in the form of a fish, having fore-shaft composed of a

narwhal-tusk, inserted so as to represent the tusk of the animal ; scale
£ inch to a foot. (Author's Coll.) X.

54. Esquimaux Lance, pointed with a walrus-tooth. fa. (Mus. R. U.S. Inst.) X.

55. Esquimaux Tomahawk or Pickaxe, headed with a walrus-tooth. fa.

(Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) X.

56. Arrow-head, probably from South America, headed with the point of

a deer's horn. (British Museum, Christy Collection.) X.

57. War-club of the Iroquois, called Ga-ne-ii-ga-o-dus-ha or ' Deer-horn War-

Club.' Lewis Morgan, League of the Iroquois (Rochester, N.Y., 18511,
p. 363. X.

58. Club of the North American Indians, with a point of iron. fa. (Mus. '

R. U. S. Inst. ; presented by T. Hoblyn, Esq.) X.

59. Arrow, from S. America, armed with the weapon of the ray, probably

Trygon hystrix. \. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) X.

60. a. Spine of Batistes capriscus, Cuv., erect. Yarrell, British Fishes (2nd ed.,

London, 1841), vol. ii, p. 472. b. Horn of Cottus diceraus, Pall. Cuvier,
Animal Kingdom (1827), s.v. c. Horn of Naseusfronticornis,Lac. Cuvier, I.e. X.

61. Spear of the Limulus or 'King Crab.' X.

62. Arrow, armed with the spine of the Diodon. \. (Author's Coll.) X.

63. ' Khandjar ' or Indian Dagger, composed of the horn of the buffalo,

having the natural form and point, fa. (Author's Coll.) X.

64. ' Khandjar ' of the same form, with metal blade and ivory handle, fa.

(Author's Coll.) X.

65. ' Khandjar ' of the same form, having both blade and handle of iron.

The handle is ornamented with the figures of a bird and some small
quadruped, fa. (Author's Coll.) X.

66. Dagger formed of the horn of the ' sasin,' or common antelope, fa.

(Author's Coll.) X.

67. Dagger like fig. 66, but with the points armed with metal, fa- (Mus.

R. U. S. Inst.) • X.

68. Dagger like figs. 66, 67, but composed entirely of metal, with a shield for

the hand. Similar shields are sometimes attached to daggers like
those in figs. 66, 67. fa. (Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) X.

69. Weapon composed of the horn of the antelope ; steel-pointed ; supposed

to be that used by the Fakirs in India. (Author's Coll.) X.

70. Sword formed of the serrated blade of the saw-fish from New Guinea.

(Mus. R. U. S. Inst.) XL

71-74. Weapons from the Pacific, edged with sharks' teeth. The teeth near
the point are placed points forward; the remainder with the points
towards the handle. Two methods of fastening the teeth are shown :
a. in grooves ; b. lashed between two strips of wood. (Mus. R. U. S.
Inst.) XI.

75. Implement from New Zealand, armed with sharks' teeth. (British

Museum.) XI.

76. Esquimaux Knife, from Davis Strait, armed with pieces of meteoric iron,

(British Museum.) XI.

77. Knife, from Greenland, armed with pieces of iron along the edge.

(British Museum, Christy Collection.) XI.

78-80. Mexican ' Maquahuitl.' Lord Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico

(1830-48), vol. i (numerous examples on pi. x-xv : fig. 79 = No. 1478). XL
81-82. Spear and Knife, from Australia, armed with pieces of obsidian, or

rock-crystal. (Mus. R. U.S. Inst.) XL

83. Arrow-point of bone, armed with a row of sharp flint flakes on each side.

(Museum of Prof. Nilsson, at Lund, in Sweden.) Reduced to £ from the

figure in Wilde, 1. c, ' Animal Materials,' p. 254. XI.

88 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [i

84. Arrow-point like fig. 83. (Copenhagen Museum.) Blustr. Cat. of the

Copenhagen Museum. XL

85. Arrow-point of hollow bone, from S. America, the hollow of the bone

being filled with poison. (Mus. E. U. S. Inst. ; Author's Coll.) XL

86. Dagger of an Italian Bravo, with grooves and holes to contain poison ;

the handle represents a monk in the act of supplication. (Author's
Coll.) XI.

87 a. Scottish Dirk, pierced with holes along the back and sides. Along the
back of the blade runs a groove eight inches long, in which holes are
pierced that communicate with lateral holes on the side of the blade.
(Author's Coll.) XI.

87 o. 'Couteau-de-Chasse,' with two grooves on each side near the back of
the blade, which is pierced through with holes. (Author's Coll.) XI.

88. Arrow-head, of iron, with a hole near the point for poison ; from S.

America. (Author's Coll.) XI.

89. Sting of the Bee, serrated or multi-barbed : after F. Huber in Jardine's

Naturalist's Library, Entomology vi. Bees (Edinb., 1840), p. 40. XI.

90. Point of Bushman's Arrow, barbed with an iron head, which is con-

structed to come off in the wound. (Author's Coll.) XI.

91. Malay Blowpipe-arrow, iron-headed ; similarly constructed. ^. (Author's

Coll.) XI.

92. Arrow of the wild tribes of Assam, copper-headed, and similarly con-

structed. £. (Author's Coll.) XI.

93. Arrow-head of the Shoshones of North America, of flint ; constructed

to come off in the wound. Schoolcraft, 1. c, vol. i. pp. 212-3, pi. lxxvi. 5.

XL

94. Arrow-point of the Macoushie Indians of S. America ; similarly con-

structed. £. (Author's Coll. ; pres. by Rev. J. Gr. Wood.) XL

95. Arrow-heads of flint, from the north of Ireland. £. (Author's Coll.)

XL

96. Part of the Blade of an Italian Dagger, serrated and pierced. Full size.

Meyrick (Skelton), I.e., vol. ii. pi. cxiii. 14. XL

[Joarn. R. U. S. Inst., XL PI. xlviii.]

Plate VI.

m

A Lam.F'xr,. rl.fi

[J. R. U. S. I., XI. PI. xlix.]

Plate VII.

[J. R. U. S. I., XI. PI. 1.]

Plate VIII.

Sim

Jiff

ffi

m

, , , i..i. tW

yxmrr

33:9

0001

[J. R. U. S. I., XI. PI. li.]

Plate IX.

[J. R. U. S. L, XI. PI. lii.]

Plate X.

[J. B. U. S. I., XI. PI. liii.J

Plate XI.

PRIMITIVE WARFARE

II

ON THE RESEMBLANCE OF THE WEAPONS OF EARLY MAN, THEIR
VARIATION, CONTINUITY, AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM.1

General Remarks.

In June, 1867, I had the honour of reading* a paper at this
Institution, which has since been published in the Journal, the
object of which was to point out the resemblance which exists
between the weapons of savages and early races and the weapons
with which nature has furnished animals for their defence.

In continuation of the same subject, my present communication
will relate to the resemblance to each other of the weapons
of races sometimes widely separated, and of which the connexion,
if it ever existed, has long" since been consigned to obscurity.
I shall endeavour to show, how in these several localities, which
are so remote from one another, the progress of form has been
developed upon a similar plan, and, though to all appearance
independently, yet that under like conditions like results have been
produced ; and that the weapons and implements of these races will
sometimes be found to bear so close a resemblance to each other,
as often to suggest a community of origin, where no such com-
mon origin can have existed, unless at the very remotest period.

We shall thus be brought to the consideration of the great
problem of our day, viz. the origin of mankind, or rather the
origin of the human arts; for the question of man's origin,
whether he was himself created or developed from some prior
form, whether since the period of his first appearance he has by
variation separated into distinct races, or whether the several
races of mankind were separately created, are questions which,
however closely allied, do not of necessity form part of our
present subject. It has to deal solely with the origin of the
arts, and more particularly with the art of war, which in the

1 A Lecture delivered at the Royal United Service Destitution on June 5,
1868, and printed in the Journal of the B. U. S. Inst., vol. xii (1868), pp. 399-
439, pi. xvii-xxi (-Plates XII-XVI herewith).

90 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

infancy of society belonged to a condition of life so constant and
universal as to embrace within its sphere all other arts, or at least
to be so intimately connected with them as to require the same
treatment ; the tool and the weapon being, as I shall presently
show, often identical in the hands of the primaeval savage.

These prefatory remarks are necessary because it will be seen
that the general observations I am about to offer on the subject
are fully as applicable to the whole range of the industrial arts
of mankind as to the art of war. My illustrations, however, will
be taken exclusively from weapons of war.

Is not the world at the present time, and has it not always
been, the scene of a continuous progress? Have not the arts
grown up from an obscure origin, and is not this growth con-
tinuing to the present day ?

This is the question which lies at the very threshold of our subject,
and we must endeavour to treat it by the light of evidence alone,
apart from all considerations of a traditional or poetic character.

I do not propose here to enter into a disquisition upon the
functions of the human mind. But it must I think be admitted,
that if man possessed from the first the same nature that belongs
to him at the present time, he must at the commencement of his
career in this world have been destitute of all creative power.
The mind has never been endowed with any creative faculty.
The only powers we possess are those of digesting, adapting,
and applying, by the intellectual faculties, the experience acquired
through the medium of the senses. We come into the world
helpless and speechless, possessing only in common with the
brutes such instincts as are necessary for the bare sustenance of
life under the most facile conditions ; all that follows afterwards
is dependent purely on experience.

Whether we afterwards become barbarous or civilized, whether
we follow a hunting, nomadic, or agricultural life, whether we
embrace this religion or that, or attain proficiency in any of the
arts, all this is dependent purely on the accident of our birth,
which places us in a position to build upon the experience of our
ancestors, adding to it the experience acquired by ourselves. For
although it is doubtless true that the breeds of mankind, like the
breeds of our domestic animals, by continual cultivation during
many generations, have improved, and that by this means races

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 91

have been produced capable of being* educated to a higher degree
than those which have remained uncivilized, this does not alter
the fact that it is by experience alone, conscious or unconscious,
self-imposed or compulsory, and by a process of slow and laborious
induction, that we arrive at the degree of perfection to which,
according to our opportunities and our relative endowments, we
ultimately attain.

The amount, therefore, which any one individual or any one
generation is capable of adding to the civilization of their age
must be immeasurably small, in comparison with what they
derive from it.

I could not perhaps appeal to an audience more capable of
appreciating the truth of these remarks than to the members of
an Institution, the object of which is to examine into the im-
provements and so-called inventions which are from time to time
effected in the machinery and implements of war.

How often does any proposal or improvement come before
this Institution which after investigating its antecedents is found
to possess originality of design ? Is it not a fact that even the
most ingenious and successful inventions turn out on inquiry to
be mere adaptations of contrivances already existing, or that they
are produced by applying to one branch of industry the principles
or the contrivances which have been evolved in another. I think
that no one can have constantly attended the lectures of this or
any similar Institution, without becoming impressed, above all
things, with the want of originality observable amongst men,
and with the great calls which, even in this age of cultivated
intellects and abundant materials to work upon, all inventors are
obliged to make upon those who have preceded them.

Since, then, we ourselves are so entirely creatures of education,
and derive so little from our own unaided resources, it follows
that the first created man, if similarly constituted, having no
antecedents from which to derive instruction, could not, without
external aid, have made any material or rapid advance towards
the initiation of the arts.

So fully has the truth of this been recognized by those who
are not themselves advocates for the theory of development, that
in order to account for the very first stages of human progress
they have found it necessary to assume the hypothesis of super-

92 PEIMITIVE WARFARE [n

natural agency : such we know was the belief of the classical
pagan nations, who attributed the origin of many of the arts to
their gods ; such we know to be the tradition of many savage
and semi-civilized nations of modern times that have attained to
the first stages of culture. But we have already disposed of this
hypothesis at the commencement of these remarks, by deciding
that our arguments should be based solely upon evidence. We
are, therefore, under the necessity of assuming, in the absence of
any evidence to the contrary, that none but the agencies which
help us now were at the disposal of our first ancestors, and the
alternative to which we must have recourse is that of supposing
that the progress of those days was immeasurably slower than it
is at present, and that vast ages must have elapsed after the first
appearance of man before he began to show even the first indica-
tions of a settled advance.

Yet the complex civilization of our own time has been built on
the foundations that were laid by these aborigines of our species,
while the brute creation may be said to have produced little more
than was necessary to their own wants or those of their imme-
diate offspring. Man has been the agent employed in a work of
continuous progression. Generation has succeeded generation,
and race has succeeded race, each contributing its quota to the
fabrication of the edifice, and then giving place to other work-
men. But the progress of the edifice itself has never ceased ; it
has gone on, I maintain (contrary to the opinion of some writers
of our day), always in fulfilment of one vast design. It is a work
of all time.

To study it comprehensively, we must devote ourselves to the
contemplation of the edifice itself, and set aside the study of
mankind for separate treatment, for it is evident that man
has been fashioned, not as the designer, but simply as the
unconscious instrument of its erection. Each individual has
been impelled by what — viewed in this light — may be regarded
as instincts sufficient to stimulate him to labour, but falling-
immeasurably short of a comprehensive knowledge of the
great scheme, towards which he is an unconscious contributor.
Of this he knows no more than the earthworm knows it to
be its function to cover the crust of the earth with mould, or
the small coral polypus knows that it is engaged in the erection

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 93

of a barrier reef. No comprehensive scheme of progress need
be searched for in the pigmy intellect of man, and if we are
ever destined to acquire any knowledge of the laws which
influence the growth of civilization, we must look for them
in an investigation of the phenomenon itself, by studying its
phases and the sequence of its mutations. In short we must
apply to the whole range of human culture, to the arts, whether
of peace or war, the same method which has already been
applied with some success to the history of language.

It has been shown that the speech of our own day has been
the work of many generations and of innumerable distinct races ;
its roots are traceable in the utterances of the untutored savage.
No nation ever consciously invented a grammar, and yet lan-
guage has been shown to be capable of being treated as a science
of natural growth, having its laws of mutation and development,
never dreamt of by any of the many myriads of individuals
that have unconsciously contributed to the formation of it.
May not all the products of human intellects in the aggregate
be made amenable to the same treatment, and, like language, be
found to be influenced by laws of evolution and progress ?

That these remarks are not merely speculative, that the
progress of civilization has been continuous and connected, while
the races which have been engaged in the formation of it, like
individuals, have had their periods of birth, maturity, and decay,
is sufficiently proved by history.

In Egypt and in Assyria, we see the remains of ancient and
formerly populous cities, where now the nomadic Arab pitches
his tent or wanders with his flocks, thus showing that relapses
of civilization must have occurred in those particular localities
where such phenomena are observed. But we know also from
history that the civilization which once flourished in those
countries did not expire there, but was transferred thence to
other places ; that the culture of Assyria and of Egypt passed
into Greece and developed there ; that from Greece it extended
to Rome, and in the hands of a new people passed through fresh
phases ; that after the destruction of the Roman Empire it lay
dormant for many ages, only to rise again on its original basis,
extended and fertilized by the introduction of fresh blood ; that
we ourselves are the inheritors of the same arts, customs, and

94 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [it

institutions, modified and improved ; and finally, that civilization,
expanding- in all directions, as it continues to move westward, is
now in process of being received back by those ancient countries
in which it originated, in a condition far more varied and
diversified than it could ever have become, had it been confined
to a single people or country.

Passing now from the known to the unknown, we come to the
study of prehistoric times, prepared to find that every fresh
discovery helps us to trace backwards the arts of mankind in
unbroken continuity towards their source.

Commencing with the Saxon and the Celt, and passing from
these to the lake dwellers, and on to the inhabitants of caves,
races whose successive periods of existence are determined chiefly
by the animals with which their remains are associated, we find
that, according to their antiquity, they appear to have lived in
a lower and lower condition of culture, until in the drift period,
coeval with the extinct mammoth and the woolly haired rhino-
ceros, we find the earliest traces of man, scanty and unsatisfactory
though they be, yet sufficient to show that he must have existed
in a state so rude, as to have devised no better implements than
flints pointed at one end, and held in the hand.

These successive prehistoric stages of civilization have been
divided into the stone, the bronze, and the iron ages of mankind.
The evidence upon which this classification is based, has been
so ably set forth in the works of Sir John Lubbock and others,
that I need not refer to it further than to state that, in my
treatment of the origin and development of the weapons of war,
I shall in a great measure follow the same arrangement.
But I shall endeavour to trace the development of form
rather than the material of weapons, and to show by examples
taken from various distinct periods, and especially by illus-
trations taken from existing savages, the various agencies
which appear to have operated in causing progression during
the earliest ages of mankind.

Of these, the first to be considered is undoubtedly the
utilization and imitation of natural forms. Nature was the only
instructor of primaeval man.

In my previous paper, I discussed this subject at some
length, giving many examples in which the weapons of animals

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 95

have been employed by man. But besides these weapons derived
from animals, primaeval man must no doubt at first have
employed the natural forms of wood and bone, and of stones
either fractured by the frost, or rolled into convenient forms
upon the seashore.

This principle of the utilization and imitation of natural forms
appears to bear precisely the same relationship to the develop-
ment of the arts, that, in the science of language, onomatopoeia
has been shown to bear to the growth and development of
articulate speech. In the attempt to trace language to its
origin, onomatopoeia, or the imitation of the sounds of animals
and of nature, appears not only to have been the chief agent in
initiating the growth of language, but it has also served to enrich
it from time to time, so that even to this day, poetry and
eloquence in a great measure depend on the employment of it.
But apart from this, language has had an independent and
systematic growth of its own.

So, in like manner, men not only drew upon nature for their
ideas in the infancy of the arts, but we continue to copy the
forms and contrivances of nature with advantage to this day.
But apart from this, we must look for an independent origin
and growth, in which form succeeded form in regular continuity.
Many a lesson has still to be learnt from the book of nature,
the pages of which are sealed to us until, by the natural growth
of knowledge, we acquire the power of reading and applying
them. Imitation therefore, though an important element in the
initiation of the arts, would not alone be sufficient to account for
the phenomenon of progress.

The next principle which we shall have to consider, is that of
variation. Amongst all the products of the most primitive races
of man, we find endless variations in the forms of their imple-
ments, all of the most trivial character. A Sheffield manu-
facturer informed me, that he had lately received a wooden
model of a dagger-blade from Mogadore, made by an Arab,
who desired to have one of steel made exactly like it. Accord-
ingly my informant, thinking that he had found a convenient
market for the sale of such weapons, constructed some hun-
dreds of blades of exactly the same pattern. On arriving at
their destination, however, they were found to be unsaleable.

96 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Although precisely of the type in general use about Mogadore, all
of which to the European eye would be considered alike, their
uniformity rendered them unsuited to the requirements of the
inhabitants, each of whom piqued himself upon possessing his
own particular pattern, the peculiarity of which consisted in
having some almost imperceptible difference in the curve or
breadth of the blade.

In the earliest stages of art, men would of necessity be led to
the adoption of such varieties by the constantly differing forms
of the materials in which they worked. The uncertain fractures
of flint, the various curves of the trees out of which they con-
structed their clubs, and the different forms of bones, would lead
them imperceptibly towards the adoption of fresh tools. Occa-
sionally some form would be hit upon, which in the hands of its
employer would be found more convenient for use, and which, by
giving the possessor of it some advantage over his neighbours,
would commend itself to general adoption. Thus by a process,
resembling what Mr. Darwin, in his late work, has termed
c unconscious selection \ rather than by premeditation or design,
men would be led on to improvement. By degrees some forms
would be found best adapted to one pursuit, and some to another;
one would be used for grubbing up roots, another for breaking
shells, another for breaking heads; modes of procedure, acci-
dentally hit upon in one class of occupation, would suggest
improvements in another, and thus analogy, coming to the aid of
accidental variation, would give an impulse to progress. Thus
would commence that ramification of the arts, occupations, and
sciences which, developing simultaneously and assisting each
other, has borne fruit in the civilization of our own times.

I am aware that it will be found extremely difficult to realize
a condition of human existence so low as that which I am
supposing, and that many persons will deny the possibility of
mankind having ever existed in a condition so helpless as to
have been incapable of designing the simple weapons which we
find in the hands of savages at the present day. It is as difficult
to place one's self in the position of a being infinitely one's
inferior, as of a being greatly one's superior in intellect. c Eew
persons/ says Professor Max M tiller, ' understand children, still
fewer antiquity/ Our own experience cannot save us in esti-

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 97

mating the powers of either, for, long before the period of which
we have the earliest recollection, we had ourselves undergone
a course of unconscious education in the arts of a civilized
community ; our very first utterances were in a language which
was in itself the complex growth of ages, and the improvement
of our natural faculties, resulting from the continued cultivation
of our race, enhances the difficulty we find in appreciating the
condition of our first parents.

Another fertile source of variation arises from errors in succes-
sive copies. At a time when men had no measures or other
appliances to assist them in copying correctly, and were guided
only by the eye, an implement would soon be made to assume
a very different appearance. Mr. Evans has shown in his work
on the ' Coins of the Ancient Britons ? (p. 167) how the head of
Medusa, copied originally from a Greek coin, was made to pass
through a series of apparently meaningless hieroglyphics, in which
the original head was quite lost, and was ultimately converted into
a chariot and four. We must not, however, attribute all variation
to this cause, for I quite agree with a remark made by Mr. Raw-
linson in his ' Five Great Monarchies ', that such varieties are more
frequently noticed in cases where the contrivance is of home
growth, than in those which are derived from strangers.

The third point which we shall have to consider in relation to
continuity, is the retarding element. Under this head, incapacity
must at all times, and especially in the infancy of society, have
played the chief part. But as civilization progressed, other
agencies would come in to influence the same result ; prejudice,
force of habit, principles of conservatism in which we have been
told by Mr. Mill that all the dull intellects of the world
habitually ensconce themselves, a thousand interests of a retard-
ing tendency, rise up at the same time as those having a pro-
gressive influence, and prevent our advancing by other than
well-measured paces.

The resultant of these contending forces is continuity. If we
could but put together the missing links ; if we could revive
contrivances that have died at their birth, and expose piracies ;
if we could penetrate the haze that is so often thrown over
continuity by great names, absorbing to themselves the credit of
contrivances that belong to others, and thereby causing it to

98 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

appear that progress has advanced with great strides, where
creeping was in reality the order of the day; we should find
that there is not a single work of man's hand which has not its
history of slow and continuous development, capable of being
traced back, like branches of a tree, to its junction with others,
and so on until the roots of all are found to lie in the simplest
contrivances of primaeval man.

But we must not expect that we shall be able, in the existing
state of knowledge, to trace this continuity from first to last, for
the links that are lost far exceed in number those which remain.
The task may be compared to that of putting together the frag-
ments of a tree that has been cut up for firewood, and of which
the greater part has been burnt. It is only here and there, after
diligent search, that we may expect to find a few pieces fitting
in such a manner as to prove that they belonged to the same
branch. We do not, on that account, abandon our conviction
that the tree once grew, that every large branch was once a small
twig, and that every limb developed by a natural process into the
form in which we find it. The difficulty we have to contend
with is precisely that which the geologist experiences in tracing
his palaeontological sequence. But it is far greater, for natural
history has been long studied, and the materials upon which
Mr. Darwin founds his celebrated hypothesis have been in
process of collection for many generations. But continuity,
in relation to the arts, can scarcely yet be said to be established
as a science. The materials for the science have not yet been
even classified, and classification is a process which must always
precede continuity in the study of nature. Classification defines
the margin of our ignorance ; continuity results from the exten-
sion of knowledge, by bridging over the distinction of classes.
Travellers, for the most part, have been in the habit of bringing
home, as curiosities, the most remarkable specimens of weapons
and implements, without much regard to their history or the
evidence they convey; and their descriptions of them, as a general
rule, have been extremely meagre. Until quite recently, the
curators of our ethnographical museums have aimed more at
the collection of unique specimens, serving to exhibit well-
marked differences of form, than such as by their resemblance
enable us to trace out community of origin. The arrangement

ii] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 99

of them has been almost universally bad, and has been calculated
rather to display the several articles to advantage, on the principle
of shop windows, than to facilitate the deductions of science.
The antiquities of savage races, moreover, have as yet been almost
wholly unstudied.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, we are able to catch
glimpses of evidence, here and there, which, when put together
systematically, and when the vestiges of antiquity are illustrated
by the implements of existing savages, will, I trust, be found
sufficient to warrant the principles for which I contend.

Combination of Tool and Weapon.

In the earliest ages of mankind, when all men were warriors,
and before the division of labour, consequent on civilization, had
separated the arts of peace and war into distinct professions, we
must expect to find the same implement frequently employed in
the capacity of both tool and weapon. Even long after the very
earliest ages of which we have any historical or archaeological
record, we often find a combination of tool and weapon in the
same forms, especially amongst those semi-civilized and savage
races of our own times, whom we regard as the representatives of
antiquity. The battles of liberty, from the age of the Jews and
Philistines down to the time, of the last Hungarian revolution,
have always been fought by the subject people with weapons
made out of the implements of husbandry. We read in the first
of Samuel, chapter xiii, ' Now there was no smith found in all
the land of Israel : for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews
make them swords or spears : but all the Israelites went down
to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share } (the blade of
the ploughshare), 'and his coulter ' (a kind of knife), cand his
ax, and his mattock ' (a kind of pickaxe). . . . e So it came
to pass, in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor
spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with
Saul and Jonathan/ In the revolts of the German peasantry,
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the bands of insurgents
armed themselves with threshing flails and scythe blades. In
1794 and 1831, the Polish peasantry were similarly armed1;
and it was from such implements of husbandry that weapons
1 Klemm, 1. c, p. 147.
H 1

100 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

like the military flail, the bill, and the yataghan, derived their
origin. In the recent outbreak in Jamaica (which, had it not
been ably and powerfully put down, would have led to the
destruction of the whole white population) the negroes armed
themselves with weapons of husbandry. In the proclamation of
Paul Bogle, he says : ' Every one of you must leave your house,
take your guns; who don't have guns, take cutlasses/ The
cutlasses here referred to were the implements used for cutting
the sugar-cane, sharp on the concave edge, and are the same
which, having been used as weapons by the negroes in their
own country, have continued to be employed by them ever since.
In like manner, we learn from Symes's 'Embassy to Ava in
1795 V that the Burmese use the sabre both for warlike purposes,
as well as for cutting bamboos, felling timber, &c. ; it is the
constant companion of the inhabitants for all purposes, and they
never travel without it. In Borneo, the peculiar sword-like
weapon, called the ' parangilang ', is used both as a weapon, and
also for felling trees, and the axe of this country is constructed
so that, by turning it on the helve, it can be used either as
a weapon or as a carpenter's axe. In like manner, the Kaffir
axe-blade, by simply altering its position in the handle, is used
either as a weapon, or for tilling the ground. The North
American Indian tomahawk, like the Kaffir axe, is used for
many different purposes ; the spear-head of the Kaffir assegai
is the knife that is used for all purposes of manufacture, and
Captain Grant says that the Watusi of East Central Africa
make all their baskets with their spear-heads.2 The weapons
edged with sharks' teeth, to which I referred in my former
paper, are used in the Marquesas and other of the South Sea
Islands, as much for cutting up fish and carcasses as for warlike
purposes.3 Dr. Klemm, in his valuable work on savage and
early weapons, describes the wooden pick used by the inhabitants
of New Caledonia both as a weapon, and also for tilling the
ground,4 and he gives reasons for supposing 5 that in Egypt and
many other parts of the world, the form of the plough was
originally derived from that of the hatchet or hoe, used for
tilling purposes. The hoe used in East Central Africa, which

1 Pinkerton (1811), vol. ix. p. 501. 2 Walk across Africa, p. 78.

3 Klemm, 1. c, p. 62. 4 1. c, p. 78. 5 1. c, pp. 123-6.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 101

also, like the Kaffir axe, serves as a medium of exchange in lieu
of money, evidently derived its form from that of a spear or
arrow head. The spade, formerly used in this country, and
represented in old pictures, which is still used as a shovel in
Ireland, is a pointed spear-like instrument, and the 'loy' or
spade still used in all parts of Ireland is hafted exactly in the
same manner as the bronze celt of prehistoric times. Dr. Klemm
(1. c, p. 119) gives an illustration of an axe used by the Norwegian
peasants both as a tool and weapon. Speke describes the Usoga
tribe x as being armed with huge short-handed spears, adapted
rather for digging than for war ; and Barth describes the Bor-
nouese troops in Central Africa digging holes with their spears, and
employing them in searching for water.2 The Australian 'dowak ',
a kind of club with a flint attached, combines the purposes of
a tool and weapon. We know from the short sticks upon which
the small arrow-heads of quartz found in the Peruvian tombs are
mounted, that they must have been used as knives as well as for
missile purposes. Professor Nilsson says that flint-barbed arrow-
heads, of precisely the same form, are used by the inhabitants of
Tierra del Fuego as knives,3 and Mr. Stephens, in his travels in
Central America, shows reason for supposing that the large stone
idols in Copan were carved with similar arrow-points,4 no other
instrument capable of being used for such a purpose having been
found in the neighbourhood.

Examples of this class of evidence might be multiplied ad
infinitum; but enough has already been said to afford good
grounds for believing that many of the implements of stone
and bronze which are found in the soil, may have been used
for a great variety of purposes, and that, especially in the
earliest stages of culture, we must be careful how we attribute
especial purposes to tools and weapons because they appear to
differ from each other slightly in form. This is more especially
so when, as is almost invariably the case, the several distinct
types are found — when a sufficient number of them are collected
and arranged — to pass almost imperceptibly into each other by

1 Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (London, 1863), p. 460.

2 Barth, Travels, vol. iii. p. 162.

3 Nilsson, The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia, edited by Sir John Lubbock
(3rd ed., London, 1868), p. 44.

* Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America (London, 1854), p. 94.

102 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

connecting links ; showing that the differences observable between
any two implements of the same class, when brought together
and contrasted, are rather due to the operation of a law of
variation and development in the fabrication of the tool itself,
than to an intention on the part of the constructor to adapt it to
particular purposes, and that its application to such especial
purposes must have followed, rather than itself have influenced,
the development of the tool.

Transition from the Drift to the Celt Type.

My first illustration must of necessity be taken from the flint
implements of the drift, the earliest records of human workman-
ship that the researches of science have as yet revealed to us.
These, to use the words of Sir Charles Lyell, 'were probably
used as weapons both of war and the chase, to grub roots, cut
down trees, or scoop out canoes/ 1

I will not attempt during the brief time allotted to me on the
present occasion, any detailed account of the evidence of the anti-
quity of these weapons, assuming that the works of Sir Charles
Lyell, and Sir John Lubbock, will have rendered this subject more
or less familiar to most persons at the present day, but I will
confine myself to pointing out the indications of variation and
of improvement observable in the implements themselves.

I have arranged upon diagram No. 1 (Plate XII) a series of
specimens of the same type from nearly every part of the globe.
All the figures given in these diagrams are traced from the
implements themselves, and reduced by photography ; they may
therefore be regarded as facsimiles, a point of great importance
when our subject has to deal with the minute gradations of
difference observable between them. Figures 1 to 11 are of the
drift type. Casts of the originals of some of them, and specimens of
the implements themselves, are also upon the table for comparison.
I may here acknowledge the great obligation I am under to
Mr. Franks for the facilities he has afforded me in drawing
many of these specimens in the Christy Collection ; to Dr. Watson
for a similar permission in regard to the valuable collection of
arms in the India Museum ; and also to Dr. Birch of the
British Museum. A large proportion of my illustrations are

1 Lyell, Antiquity of Man (London, 1873), p. 161.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 103

taken from the excellent Museum of this Institution, and
others are from my own collection.

Of the drift specimens which I have selected to illustrate the
diagrams, five are from the gravel beds of St. Acheul, in order
that we might have an opportunity of observing the variation
in implements derived from the same locality, and probably
belonging to the same or nearly the same period — chips in fact
from the same workshop.

It has been usual to classify these drift implements in two
divisions ; the spear-head form, and the oval form. Of the first
or spear-head form, figures 2 to 4 are typical examples ; of the
oval form, figure 8 is the best illustration. I venture, however,
to think that a distinction more clearly embodying a principle
of progress may be made by dividing them differently, and by
placing in the first class those which are either left rough or
rounded at one end and pointed at the other, of which figures
1 to 7 are examples ; and in the second class, such as are chipped
to an edge all round, of which figures 8 to 11 are types. My
reason for preferring this classification to one dependent on
outline is this. The first class having the natural outside
coating of the flint or a roughly rounded surface on one side,
appears to be in every way adapted to be held in the hand;
whereas the second class, of. which a beautiful specimen in the
Christy Collection from St. Acheul is represented in a front and
side view in figure 10, could not conveniently be used in the hand
as a tool or weapon, without injury to the hand from the sharp
edge with which its periphery is surrounded on all sides. If, there-
fore, we see reason for supposing that one class of implements was
employed in handles, whilst the other may have been used in the
hand, I think this constitutes a more important distinction, and
one more obviously implying progress, than a classification which
merely involves a modification of outline, which may have resulted
from no more significant cause than a difference in the form of
the flint nodule out of which the implement was made.1

Another important distinction between these drift implements

1 I am informed by an eye-witness, that the Australian savages, in climb-
ing treesj use implements nearly similar to these, to cut notches for their
feet. The implement is held in the hand, without any handle. Others are
used in handles, either fastened with gum, or consisting of a withe passed
round the stone and tied underneath.

104 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

as thus arranged, arises from the different purposes to which they
may have been put by the fabricators. The first class, figures 1
to 7 — it will be seen by the side view of them — could have been
used only as spears, picks, or daggers, the pointed or small end
being employed for that purpose, whereas the latter class, figures
8 to 11, are equally available for use as axes with the sharp and
broad end. It is quite possible therefore, that we may see here,
in these vestiges of the first tools of mankind (specimens of all
varieties of which are found in the same beds at St. Acheul), the
point of divergence between the two distinct classes, which must
certainly be regarded as the two most constant and universal
weapons of mankind in all ages and countries of the world, viz.
the spear and the axe ; the small end developed into the spear and
into all that class of tools for which a point is required ; and from
the broad end we obtained the axe and all those tools which
either as chisels, choppers, gouges, or battle-axes, have continued
in use with an endless continuity of development and modification,,
and a world-wide history up to the present time. I am aware
that in the St. Acheul implements, as well as in those of similar
form from the laterite beds of Madras, we find occasionally speci-
mens in which the small end is made broader, as if indicating the
gradual development of an edge on that side, but upon the whole
I think the balance of evidence is in favour of the broad end
having originated the axe form.

Nothing, it will be seen, can be more primitive than these
tools, or more gradual than their development. They are per-
fectly consistent with the idea that the fabricators of them were
in a condition closely verging upon that of the brutes. Apes are
known to use stones in cracking the shells of nuts. The advan-
tage to be derived from a pointed form, when it accidentally fell
into the hand, would suggest itself almost instinctively to any
being capable of profiting by experience and retaining it in the
memory. Accidental fractures, producing a sharp edge, would
lead to fractures of design, and thus we may easily suppose that
such implements as are represented in the first few figures of our
diagram must necessarily have resulted from the very earliest
constructive efforts of primaeval man.

From the very first, a peculiar mode of fabrication appears to
have been adopted, which consisted of chipping off flakes from

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 105

alternate sides of the flint, and the facets thus left upon the flint
produce the wavelike edge which you will see in the side views of
all the implements here represented. This method continued to
be employed throughout the entire stone age, in all parts of the
universe, and is characteristic not merely of the drift, but of the
cave, pfahlbauten, and surface periods.

The numerous intermediate gradations of form, whether
between the oval and the spear-head form, or between the
thick and the sharpened form, have been noticed by Sir Charles
Lyell (1. c, p. 164). By selecting specimens, and arranging them
in order from left to right, I have endeavoured to trace the tran-
sition from the drift type to the almond-shaped celt type, which
latter is common to the stone age of mankind, whether ancient
or modern, in all parts of the world.

Had the discovery of drift implements been confined to one
locality or to one district, it is probable it would have attracted
but little notice. As early as the first year of the present century
the attention of the Society of Antiquaries had been drawn by
Mr. Frere to the existence of these implements, in conjunction
with the remains of the elephant and other extinct animals at
Hoxne in Suffolk. An illustration of the specimens from this
locality is given in figure 4. Mr. Frere described them as
1 evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by a people who
had not the use of metals \ But little or no attention was paid
to the subject until the discovery by M. Boucher de Perthes of
precisely similar implements associated with the same class of
remains, in the drift gravel of St. Acheul, near Amiens, in
1858.1 Since then many other discoveries have been made, and
still continue to be made, by Mr. Prestwich, Mr. Evans,
Mr. Flower, Mr. Bruce Foote, and others, not only in this
country but also in Asia and Africa, showing, in so far as the dis-
coveries have hitherto gone, that this drift type, like the almond
celt type, is common to the earliest ages in all parts of the
world, and that everywhere the drift type preceded the almond-
shaped celt type, and is found in beds of earlier formation.

1 Mr. Frere's first discovery was in 1797 (Archaeologia, xiii. p. 204). (M.
Boucher de Perthes began work in 1837 (De la Creation, Paris, 1838), and
published his Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes (vol. i) in 1847. His
discoveries were, however, not verified and accepted by the British observers
till 1858-9.— Ed.)

106 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Figure 5 is a drift-shaped implement from the laterite beds of
Madras, of exactly the same form as those found in England.
Figure 6 is an implement of the same class from the Cape of
Good Hope, found fourteen feet from the surface. In America,
implements of the drift type have not yet been discovered, but
stone spear-heads have been found in Missouri in connexion with
the elephant and other extinct animals. Figure 11 is from
a mound of sun-dried bricks at Abou Sharein, in Southern Baby-
lonia, obtained by Mr. J. E. Taylor, British Consul at Basrah ;
it is a chipped flint ; in form it is of the drift type, and its out-
line is precisely that of some of the Carib celts found in the West
India Islands ; it also closely resembles in form others from the
Pacific 1; its edge was evidently at the broad end. Another of the
same type was found at Mugeyer in Babylonia, and a third closely
resembling the two former was found in a cave in Bethlehem.

The celt type has not as yet been found in the French caves
of the reindeer period, but it is common in the ' pile dwellings ' of
the Swiss lakes. Some of the French cave specimens, however,
closely approach the drift form, and in place of the celt, we have
a peculiar kind of tool trimmed to a cutting edge on one side
and having the other round for holding in the hand. As,
however, these do not fall into the direct line of development,
but may be regarded as a branch variety, I have not figured
them in my diagram, but pass at once, though almost imper-
ceptibly as regards form, from the drift to the surface type.

Figure 12 formed part of a large find of flint implements,
discovered by myself in the ancient British camp of Cissbury,
near Worthing — an account of this discovery was communicated
by me to the Society of Antiquaries at the commencement of
the present year.2 The period of these Cissbury implements
must be fixed at a very much more modern date than those of
the drift, with which they are associated in my diagram, having
been found in conjunction with the earliest traces of domestic
animals, such as the Bos longifrons, Capra hircus, and Sus ;
they may, however, be classed with the stone age, no trace
of metal having been discovered with them, although from 500
to 600 flint implements were found in the camp. The peculiarity

1 See figures 28 and 32, as well as figure 17 a from Central India.

2 March 5, 1868. Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond. 2nd Ser. iv. p. 85 : Archaeologia, xlii.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 107

of the Cissbury find, however, consists in the discovery (in the
same pits in which celts of the type represented in figure 12
were found) of a few flints closely approaching the drift type,
being thick at the broad end, and also of a large number
resembling those found in the French caves, trimmed to an edge
on one side, and adapted to be held in the hand. So that the
Cissbury find, although belonging to what is usually called the
surface period, contains specimens affording every link of
connexion between the drift and the almond-shaped celt type.
This discovery must, I think, be regarded as a step in knowledge
of prehistoric antiquity, and a decided accession to the science
of continuity, for Sir John Lubbock has told us in his preface
to the work of Professor Nilsson, lately published1, that the
Palaeolithic, i. e. the drift types, ' have never yet been met
with in association with the characteristics of a later epoch.'
I shall therefore be interested to know whether, after an
examination of the Cissbury specimens, which I have presented
to the Christy Collection, Sir John Lubbock may be induced to
alter his opinion on that point ; for I think it is entirely consistent
with all that is known of early races of mankind, that early
types should be retained in use long after the introduction of
others that have been developed from them. However this may
be, I think that in casting the eye from left to right along the
upper row of diagram No. 1 (Plate XII), it will puzzle the acutest
observer to determine where the drift type ends, and that of the
celt begins. If it is contended, as I am aware it will be
contended by some, that the typical characteristic of the celt
consists in its being sharp at the broad end, while those of the
drift are blunt at the broad end, I reply that many of the drift
specimens are also sharpened at the broad end, more especially
those represented in figures 9 and 10 from the drift of St. Acheul.
Many specimens from Thetford which I have seen, as, for
example, Fig. 17 b, from a cast in the collection of the Society
of Antiquaries, presented by Mr. Flower, approach equally
closely to the celt type, as do some of those from the laterite
beds of Madras, and though they are of rare occurrence in all
these localities, and are certainly a variation from the normal

1 Nilsson, The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia, edited by Sir John Lubbock
(London, 1868), Editor's Introduction, p. xxiv.

108 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

type of drift implements, still they are found in sufficient
numbers to serve as links in connecting the forms of the earliest,
with those of the later period.

I have dealt somewhat at length upon this part of my subject,
owing to the circumstance of its presenting some features of
novelty in the study of flint implements, and being therefore
open to criticism on the part of those who are more favourable
to the principles of classification than of continuity, with all
the important concomitants, of division versus unity, which
those principles involve.

I may now pass briefly over the remaining figures in the
diagram. Figure 13 is a specimen found by Mr. Evans at
Spienne, near Mons; its very close resemblance to figure 12
from Cissbury will be noticed ; in fact the whole of the Spienne
specimens resemble very closely those discovered in Cissbury,
except that the Spienne implements of this class are associated
with others of polished flint, which gives them a more advanced
character than those derived from Cissbury, in which place only
one fragment of a polished implement was discovered, and that
in a part of the intrenchment which renders it very doubtful
whether it ought to be associated with the Cissbury find.
Figures 15, 16, and 17 are from Denmark, Ireland, and York-
shire;— this type, however, is rare in Denmark, most of the
flint implements from that country being of a more advanced
character, and having usually a rectangular cross-section.

The lower row of the diagram consists of specimens derived,
either from what has been termed the neolithic or polished stone age
of Europe, or from savages who are still in a corresponding stage of
progression in various parts of the world at the present time.

To the former or neolithic stone age of Europe belong
figure 21 from France, figure 25 from the bed of the Clyde
in Scotland, figure 27 from the Swiss lake-dwellings,
figure 29 from the caves in Gibraltar, figure 30 from Sweden,
figure 36 from Portugal, figure 37 from the bed of the
Thames, figure 38 from Ireland, figure 39 from Jelabonga,
in Russia. Precisely identical forms are also found in Germany,
Italy, and the Channel Isles. Amongst the specimens derived
from the ancient stone age of other parts of the world, and
belonging to an age of civilization that is now extinct, may be

ii] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 109

enumerated figure 22 from Peru, figure 40 from Mexico,
figure 24 from Central India, figure 41 from Japan, figure 42
from Mugeyer, in Babylonia. Nearly similar ones, but flattened
at the side, like those common in Denmark, have been obtained
from China and Pegu. Figure 43 is from Algeria, from the
collection of Mr. Flower.

The following are examples of the same class of implements,
used by savages of our own, or of comparatively modern times :
— Figures 18 and 19 from Australia; these are generally used
in a handle, formed by a withe twisted round them in the
manner still used by blacksmiths in this country. Sometimes,,
however, I am informed by an eye-witness, the Australians use
these celts in the hand without any handle at all. Although
polished on the surface, these Australian celts have been
compared by Sir Charles Lyell (1. c, p. 79) to the oval forms of
the drift represented in figure 7. The art of polishing appears to
have preceded the development of form in this country. Figure
20, from New Zealand, is a specimen in Mr. Evans's collection,
of which he has been so kind as to allow me to take an outline ;
this form, however, is extremely rare in New Zealand, the usual
shape of the stone celts from that country being flat- sided, like
the specimens from Denmark, already noticed. Figure 23 is
from the Pacific ; figure 26, from Pennsylvania ; these were used
by the American Indians, previously, and for some time after the
immigration of Europeans. Figures 31 and 32 are Carib celts from
my collection, beautifully polished. Figure 33, from St. Domingo,
is in the Cork Museum. Figure 34, from the Antilles, is in the
Christy Collection ; both of these have a human face engraved
upon them. Figure 35 is of jade, from New Caledonia, in my
own collection.

Hafting.

The method of hafting these implements, employed by savages,
shows that they were used for a variety of purposes ; in some,
the edge is fastened at right angles to the handle, to be used as
an adze, whilst in others the same tool is fastened with the blade
in a line with the handle, to be used as a chopper or battle-axe.
In some it is fastened with a withe, passed round the stone, as in
the specimen from Australia (fig. 44, from this Institution) and
some parts of North America ; figure 45 is a stone axe from the

110 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Ojibbeway Indians, from my collection. At other times it is in-
serted in the side of a stick or club. A specimen in my collec-
tion from Ireland (fig. 46), one of the few that have ever been
found with handles, shows that this was the method employed in
that country.1 Others are inserted in the end of a bent stick
(fig. 47), a mode of hafting common in the Polynesian Islands,
in Africa, Ancient Egypt, Mexico, North America, and New
Caledonia ; it is employed by the Kalmucks and others, and was
used during the bronze age. Some of the Australian axes were
fastened to their handles by a peculiar preparation of gum manu-
factured for that purpose.

Dr. Klemm, in his 'Werkzeuge und Waffen', supposes the
first lessons in hafting to have been derived from nature, by
observing the manner in which stones are often firmly grasped
by the roots of trees growing round them, and he gives several
woodcuts of specimens of Nature's hafting, which he has collected
from various sources ; one of these, extracted from his work (1. c,
p. 14), is represented in figure 48. I have placed upon the table,
in illustration of this idea, an iron mediaeval axe-head (fig. 49),
which has furnished itself with a handle in this manner, whilst
buried beneath the surface ; it is said to have been found in
Glemham Park, Suffolk, eleven feet from the surface. Even to
this day, when a peasant in Brittany discovers one of these stone
celts upon the ground, he is in the habit of splitting the branch
of a young tree and inserting the celt into the cleft ; in the
course of a year or two it becomes firmly fixed, and he then cuts
off the branch, and uses the implement thus hafted by nature as
a hammer for driving nails. In the f Antiquites Celtiques et
Antediluviennes/ vol. i (Paris, 1847), p. 327, M. Boucher de
Perthes mentions the discovery of two ancient stone hammer-heads,
which appeared to have been furnished with handles by passing the
hole over the bough of a tree and allowing it to fill up the aper-
ture by its natural growth, until it became fixed as a handle.2

It might be interesting, if space permitted, to follow up the,
development of the stone axe-head through its various phases
until, in the latest stages, when bronze had already come into

1 The handle, since its discovery, has been fractured in four places, and
has shrunk a good deal from its original size.

2 Cf. Kemble, Horae Ferales (London, 1863), p. 134.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 111

general use for weapons, we find it furnished with a hole through
the middle for the insertion of the handle. It may, I think, be
safely said that — although nature furnishes numerous examples, in
many classes of rocks, and especially in flints, of stones perforated
with holes, and although they appear to have attracted the notice
of the aborigines of many countries by the peculiar superstitious
reverence which is often found to be attached to such stones when
found in the soil — this mode of fastening stone implements in
their handles did not come into use until late in the stone age,
and that even in the bronze age it was but little employed.

Transition from Oval to Rectangular Forms.
Whether the stone celts having a square or rectangular section
(such as are found principally in Denmark, New Zealand,
Mexico, and Pegu), were coeval, or of subsequent development, to
those of the almond-shape type, may be a matter for conjecture ;
the small flint hatchets found in the Kitchenmiddens of Denmark
appear to approach closely to the rectangular type. It is certain,
that in the Swiss Lakes both forms are found fully developed,
and it may be mentioned, as an instance of the constant tendency
to variation that is everywhere observable in the weapons of the
early races of mankind, that of the whole of the celts found at
Nussdorf, in the Lake of Constance, though all might be traced
to the same normal type as regards their general outline, no two
were alike ; and Dr. Keller gives sections, showing every con-
ceivable gradation from the square and rectangular to the oval
and circular section1. It may, however, be affirmed, that convex
forms, as a general rule, preceded those having a rectangular or
eoncave surface ; it is so in the forms of nature ; the habitations
of animals are almost invariably convex. Dr. Livingstone men-
tions 2 that he found it impossible even to teach the natives of
South Africa to build a square hut ; when left to themselves for
a few minutes, they invariably reverted to the circle. All the
earliest habitations of prehistoric times are found to be circular
or oval ; even the sophisticated infant of modern civilization,
when he plays with his bricks, will invariably build them in a
circular form, until otherwise instructed.

1 Keller, The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, transl. by J. E. Lee (2nd ed.
London, 1878), vol. i. pp. 111-3.

2 Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in S. Africa (1857), p. 40.

112 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Development of Spear and Arrow-head Forms.

We must now turn to the development of the second great
class of weapons — the spear and arrow. These may be classed
together, the arrow being merely the diminutive of the spear;
and it may be taken as a general rule, applicable to all the
arts of prehistoric times, that when a given form has once
been introduced, it will speedily be repeated in every possible
size that can be applied to any of the various purposes for which
such a form is capable of being used. Size, in the arts of the
earliest ages, is no indication of progress. In the same way
it may be said of the development of the animal or vegetable
kingdom, size is no indication of improved organism.

In the same beds in which the drift-type implements are
found, flakes, either struck off in the formation of such tools,
or especially flaked off from a core in a particular manner,
indicating that they were themselves intended for use as tools,
are found in considerable numbers. No more useful tool could
have been used during the stone age than the plain, untouched
flint flake, which, from the sharpness of the edge, is capable
of being used for a variety of purposes. Those, for example,
formed of obsidian are so sharp that it is recorded, by the
Spanish historians, that the Mexicans were in the habit of
shaving themselves with such flakes. As my present subject
has to deal exclusively with war weapons, I will not enter into a
detailed description of these flakes, further than to observe that
they are found, together with the cores from which they were
struck off, in every quarter of the globe in which flint, obsidian,
or any other suitable material has been found, and that everywhere
the process of flaking appears to have been the same.

Now, the fracture of flint is very uncertain; by constant
habit, the ancient flint-workers appear to have been able to
command the fracture of the flint in a manner that cannot be
imitated, even by the most skilful forgers of those implements in
modern times ; but, notwithstanding this, the varieties of the forms
of the flakes thus struck off must have been very considerable, and
these varieties must, from the very first, have suggested some of
the different forms of tools that were made out of them.

I cannot, perhaps, explain this point better than by exhibiting
a number of flakes, found by myself in the bed of the Bann at

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 113

Toom, in Ireland, at the spot where that river flows out of
Lough Neagh. This was a place originally discovered by
Mr. Evans, where probably/ in a habitation built upon the
river, they formerly manufactured flint implements; and the
bed of the river for the space of a hundred yards or more is
covered with the flakes. It will be seen on examining these
flakes, that some of them came off in a broad leaf-shaped form,
and these, with a very little additional chipping, have been
formed into spear-heads. Others longer and thicker have been
chipped into something like picks, and others thinner and
narrower than the two former, have been used probably as
knives; others for scraping skins. We see from this that
certain forms would naturally suggest themselves through the
natural fracture of the flint, and this may to a certain extent
account, though it does not, I think, entirely account, for the
remarkable resemblance of form and unity of development
observable in the spear and arrow heads, derived from localities
so remote from each other as almost to preclude the possibility
of their having ever been derived from a common source.

I have arrangedin tabular form, on diagramNo. 2 ( = Plate XIII),
representations of spear and arrow heads from all the different
localities from which I have been able to obtain them in sufficient
number to show fairly the. numerous varieties which each
country produces. On the top of the diagram, from left to
right, the several forms are arranged in the order that appears
most truly to indicate progression ; but it must not be supposed
that this arrangement is absolutely correct, for the several forms,
such for example as the tang and the triangular form, were most
probably derived from a common centre. The specimens from
each locality ought therefore, in order to display their progression
properly, to be arranged in the form of a tree, branching from
a common stem. On the left of the diagram are written the
different periods and localities, from which the specimens are
derived. Commencing with the drift — the oldest of which we
have any knowledge — which is coeval with the elephant and
rhinoceros in Europe, we have the peculiar thick form already
described. The examples of the drift period here shown, from
their small size, must evidently have been used with a shaft,
as they are scarcely large enough to have served as hand tools.

114 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

None of the lozenge, tang-, or triangular forms, have ever been
found in the drift.

The next line represents specimens from the French caves
of the reindeer period, which are taken from the Reliquiae
Aquitanicae, chiefly from Dordogne.1 It will be seen that in
these caves the first rude indications of the lozenge and tang
form are represented, but no perfect specimens of either class.
No example of the triangular form has been discovered. The
leaf-shape form, however, is well represented.

In the ancient habitations of the Swiss Lakes, which belong
to a later period, all varieties, except those of the drift type, are
represented, but none of them in their most fully developed
form ; the tangs, it will be seen, are long, and the barbs com-
paratively short ; the triangular form, which I consider to be
the latest in the order of development, is mentioned by
Dr. Keller, from whose work these specimens are taken, as
being extremely rare. The comparative rarity of flint imple-
ments in the Lakes may, however, in some measure be accounted
for, by the absence of flint in the district, necessitating the
importation of this material from a distance.

The specimens from Yorkshire, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark,
Italy, and Germany, may be considered to carry the develop-
ment of these forms up to the latest period, viz. the late stone,
and early bronze age ; for there can be no doubt from the
number of arrow-heads found in these countries, in connexion
with implements of bronze, that they were used for missile pur-
poses long after the armes blanches had been constructed of metal.

In all these localities it will be seen that the various grada-
tions of form are identical ; but as I have been able to collect
a much larger number of arrow-heads from Ireland than else-
where, the development of form is more apparent in the speci-
mens selected from that country.

From the leaf-shape, it will be observed, there is every link of
transition into the perfect lozenge type, and the latter is as a
general rule, both in Ireland and in Yorkshire, much rarer, and
more carefully constructed, than the leaf -shaped type, showing
that there is every probability of the lozenge having been an
improved form.

1 Lartet and Christy, Reliquiae Aquitanicae (London, 1865-75, passim).

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 115

The tang form is represented, at first, by a few rude chips on
each side of the base of the original flake, narrowing that part in
such a manner as to admit of its being inserted, into a handle or
shaft, and bound round with a sinew. This is superseded by the
gradual formation of barbs on each side, and these barbs are
lengthened by degrees, until they reach to the line of the base of
the tang; the tang subsequently shortens, leaving the barbs with
a semicircular aperture between them , and thus approaching some
of the forms represented in the triangular column. These latter
barbed specimens are usually more finished, and chipped with
greater care than the long-tanged ones, which are rougher, more
time-worn, and probably of earlier date.

The triangular form is seen at first, with a straight base ;
gradually a semicircular aperture appears, and this deepens by
degrees until, in some of the more carefully formed specimens, it
approaches the form of a Norman arch. This last variety is
especially well represented in Denmark.

Sir William Wilde's arrangement, in his Catalogue of the Royal
Irish Academy?- differs in some respects from this ; he considers
the triangular an early form, and he assigns the final perfection
of the art of fabricating flint spear-heads, to the large lozenge-
shape form ; grounding his opinion on the circumstance of many
of this form, of the larger size, having been found polished,
whilst those of the leaf, triangular, and tang shape are not
usually carried further than the preliminary process of chipping.
But it is evident that these larger forms may have been used for
spears, the lozenge shape being especially adapted for this pur-
pose, as enabling the owner of it to withdraw it from the wound,
after slaying his adversary ; while those of the barbed and
triangular form being lighter, and calculated to stick in the
wound, would be better adapted for arrow-heads : and it is un-
likely that the same amount of labour would be expended on
a weapon intended to be cast from a bow, as upon one designed
to be held in the hand. I consider the polishing of these par-
ticular weapons therefore to be no criterion of age, but merely to
indicate that they were used as amies cl'hast, and not as missiles.

It appears highly probable, however, that all the several

1 Wilde, Catalogue of the Antiquities of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy
(Dublin, 1863), vol. i. pp. 19-23.

I 1

116 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

varieties, if not developed simultaneously, were used at the same
time; for we find amongst the Persians, the Esquimaux, and
many other nations, that a great variety of arrow-heads are
carried in the same quiver, and are used either indiscriminately
or for different purposes \

In the eighth row from the top, I have arranged a series of
similar forms from America, obtained chiefly from Pennsylvania,
but they are also found in other parts of the continent, and
some few of the illustrations here given (Plate XIII, figs. 131,
132, and 133) are from Tierra del Fuego. Their forms enable
them to be arranged under precisely the same divisions as those
from the continent of Europe, and in each division the same
development is observable. The tang or barbed form, however,
differs sufficiently from the European forms of the same class to
show that they arose independently, and were not derived from
a common source. The tang of the American arrow-heads, it
will be seen, is broader, at least in the later forms, and it appears
to have originated in a notch on the sides of the blade, intended
to hold the sinew with which it is attached to the shaft or handle.
This notch appears to have been constructed lower and lower on
the sides of the blade, until at last it comes down quite into the
base of the flint, and it then closely resembles the European in
form ; compare, for example, figures 94 and 136 ; except that the
tang is broader, and has a lateral projection on each side, so as to
render it firmer in the shaft when bound by the sinew.

Notches at the side of the blade are extremely rare in Ireland,
but from Sweden Professor Nilsson gives a drawing of an arrow-
head, which I have copied into my diagram (figure 96). It
is precisely identical, in its peculiar form, to one here figured
from America (figure 139), and they both have a concave
base, in addition to the side notch ; thus apparently representing
a transition form between the tang and the triangular, which I
have never noticed, except in the two specimens here referred to,
and which must be regarded in Europe as extremely rare.

To illustrate the mode of fixing these instruments in their shafts,

1 After having witnessed the process of fabricating flint arrow-heads, as
re-discovered by Mr. Evans, I am able to understand why it is that the leaf-
shaped form is of more frequent occurrence, and why this and the long-tanged
forms are so often rougher and less finished than the other forms, the deep
barbs and hollow base requiring much greater skill than the former.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 117

I have here figured several examples from my collection ; two of
these (figures 163 and 164) were derived from the Esquimaux,
between Icy Cape and Point Barrow, the person from whom I
purchased them having brought them himself from that locality.
Figures 165, 166, and 167, are from California.

Burton says that the Indians between the Mississippi and the
Pacific use the barbed form only for war 1 ; and Schoolcraft, in the
Archives of the Aborigines of America? gives illustrations of two
methods of fastening, one for war and the other for the chase,
the former being loosely tied on, so as to come off when inserted
in the wound.

But, in addition to their use as arrow-points, we have reason
to suppose that they were used also as knives. I have repre-
sented in the diagram (figures 168 and 169) two short-
handled instruments from Peru, which are now in the British
Museum, into which similar arrow-points are inserted. These,
from the shortness and peculiar shape of their shafts, could
hardly have been used as darts. The only weapon peculiar to
those regions from which such an instrument could have been
projected, is the blow-pipe, and they are entirely different from
the darts used with the blow-pipe either in South America, the
Malay Peninsula, or Ceylon, in which countries the blow-pipe is
used. There is reason to believe, from the manner in which they
are placed in the graves, unaccompanied by any bow or other
weapon from which they could have been projected 3, that they
were employed as knives, and this is confirmed by the fact, already
mentioned, of the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego using their
arrow-points for knives. The great numbers in which they are
found in Ireland, in Yorkshire, and other localities appertaining
to the late stone age, in which places they form the greater part
of the relics collected, and are always the most highly finished
implements discovered — the other stone implements associated
with them being either celts, flint-discs, picks, or rough or
partially worked flakes, that are capable of being wrought into

1 Burton, The City of the Saints (London, 1861), p. 146.

2 Schoolcraft, Information concerning . . . the Indian Tribes of the U.S.A. (Phila-
delphia, 1851-9), vol. i. p. 212.

3 In the museum belonging to the Cork College, there is a Peruvian
mummy, with which, amongst other articles, two of these arrow-pointed
knives were found.

118 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

arrows — the fact that the peculiar modification of form observable
at the base of these implements appears to have been designed
rather to facilitate the attachment of them to their wooden shafts
or handles, than for the special purposes of war ; and the fre-
quent marks of use, as if by rubbing, that are found on the
points of many of them, especially in the specimens from Ireland ;
all these circumstances favour the supposition that in Europe, as
well as in America, these arrow-head forms were used for many
other purposes besides war and the chase ; and that, like the
assegai of the Kaffir, and the many other examples of tool-
weapons already enumerated, we may regard them as having
served to our primaeval ancestors the general purposes of a small
tool available for carving, cutting, and for all those works for
which a fine edge and point was required. On the other hand the
celt undoubtedly provided them with a large tool capable of being
applied to all the rougher purposes, whether peaceful or warlike, for
which it was adapted in the simple arts of an uncivilized people.
In the ninth row I have arranged, under their respective
classes, the whole of the specimens of flint arrow-heads that
are given in Siebold's atlas of Japanese weapons.1 It will be
seen that they present the same variety of form as those already
described. A similar collection of flint arrow-heads has lately
been added to the British Museum by Mr. Franks, and described
by him. They formed part of a Japanese collection of curiosities,
and are labelled in the Japanese character, showing that this
remote country not only passed through the same stone period
as ourselves, but that, as their culture improved and expanded,
they, like ourselves, have at last begun to make collections of
objects to illustrate the arts of remote antiquity.

Implements composed of 'Perishable Materials.

It is now time that I should say a few words respecting
weapons constructed of more perishable materials ; for it is not
to be assumed that, because we find nothing in the drift-gravels
but weapons of flint and stone, the aborigines of that age did
not also employ wood and other materials capable of being more
easily worked. If man was at that time, as he is now, a beast
of prey, he must also have become familiar, in the very .first

1 Siebold, Nippon (Leiden, 1832-52), vol. i. pt. ii (Alte Waffen), Tab. xi.

ii] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 119

stages of his existence, with the uses of bone as a material for
fabricating into weapons. In the French caves, a large number
of bone implements have been found, and their resemblance,
amounting almost to identity, with those found in Sweden,
amongst the Esquimaux, and the inhabitants of Tierra del
Fuego, has been noticed by Sir John Lubbock, Professor
Nilsson, and others.

But, in dealing with the subject of continuity and develop-
ment, it is necessary to confine our remarks to those countries
from which we have had an opportunity of collecting large
varieties of the same class of implement ; we must therefore
have recourse to the Australian, the New Zealander, and those
nations with which we are more frequently brought in contact.

Transition from Celt to V addle, Spear, and Sword Forms.
The almond-shape celt form, as I have already demonstrated,
is one so universally distributed and of such very early origin,
that we may naturally expect to find many of the more
complicated forms of savage implements derived from it. [See
diagram No. 3, reproduced in Plate XIV.] In a paper in the
Ulster Journal of Archaeology (Belfast, 1857, vol. v, pp. 125-27)
a writer draws attention to the occurrence in the bed of the
Bann, and elsewhere in the north of Ireland, of stone clubs,
formed much upon the general outline of the celt, but narrowed
at the small end, so as to facilitate their being held in the hand
like a bludgeon. Fig. 50 is copied from the illustration given
in the paper referred to, and fig. 51 is another in my collection,
also from Ireland, of precisely the same form ; the original is
upon the table, and it will be seen that it is simply a celt cut
at the small end, so as to adapt it to being held in the hand.
Fig. 52 is an implement in common use among the New
Zealanders, called the ' pattoo-pattoo ' , of precisely the same
shape ; it is of jade, and its form, as may be seen by the thin
sharp edge at the top, is evidently derived from that of the stone
celt. Fig. 53 is a remarkably fine specimen, from the Museum
of this Institution ; the handle part in this specimen is more
elaborately finished. These weapons are used as clubs to break
heads, and also as missiles, and the fact of their having been
derived from the celt is shown by the manner in which they

120 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

are used by the New Zealanders. I am informed by Mr. Dilke,
who derived his information from the natives whilst travelling
in New Zealand, that the manner of striking with these weapons
is not usually with the side, but with the sharp end of the
pattoo-pattoo, precisely in the same manner that a celt would
be used if held in the hand. The spot selected for the blow is
usually above the ear, where the skull is weakest. If any
further evidence were wanting to prove the derivation of this
weapon from the stone celt, it is afforded by fig. 54, which is a
jade implement lately added to the British Museum from the
Woodhouse Collection. It was, for some time, believed to have
been found in a Greek tomb, but this is now believed by
Mr. Franks to be a mistake ; it is, without doubt, a New
Zealand instrument. The straight edge shows unmistakably
that the end was the part employed in using it, while the
rounded small end, with a hole at the extremity, shows that,
like the pattoo-pattoo, it was held in the hand. It is, in fact,
precisely identical with the hand celts from Ireland, above
described, and forms a valuable connecting link between the
celt and pattoo-pattoo form. Now it may be regarded as a law
of development, applicable alike to all implements of savage and
early races, that when any form has been produced symmetrically,
like this pattoo-pattoo, the same form will be found either
curved to one side, or divided in half; the variation, no doubt,
depending on the purposes for which it is used. The pattoo-
pattoo, having been used at first, like its prototype the celt,
for striking with the end, would naturally come to be employed
for striking upon the side edge.1 The other side would therefore
be liable to variation, according to the fancy of the workman.
Figs. 55, 56, and 57, are examples of these implements, in which
the edge is retained only on one side and at the end, the other
side being variously cut and ornamented. This weapon extended
to the west coast of America, and there, as in New Zealand,
they are found both of the symmetrical and of the one-sided form.
Fig. 58 is one believed to be from Nootka Sound, in my
collection. Fig. 59 is also from Nootka, in the Museum of this

1 Evidence of this transition may be seen by examining any number of
pattoo-pattoos. Some are sharp at the end ; others are blunt at the end, but
sharp at the side near the broadest part.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 121

Institution. Fig. 60 is an outline of one from Peru, which is
figured in Dr. Klemm's work (1. c, fig. 46, p. 26), and I am in-
formed that a nearly similar club has been derived from Brazil.

The same form as the pattoo-pattoo, in Australia, has been
developed in wood. Fig. 61 is from Nicol Ray, North- West
Australia, and is in the Christy Collection described as a sword.
Fig. 62 is of the same form, also of wood, but of cognate form,
from New Guinea. In fig. 63, which is also from New Guinea,
we see the same form developed into a paddle. In the larger
implements of this class we see the same form, modified in such
a manner as to diminish the weight; thus, the convex sides
become either straight or concave. I have arranged upon the
walls a variety of clubs and paddles, from the Polynesian Islands,
figs. 64 to 67, all of which must have been derived from
a common source. The New Zealand steering-paddle, fig. 64,
it will be seen, is simply an elongated celt form, Those from
the Marquesas (fig. 65), Society Isles, Fiji, and Solomon Isles, &c,
are all allied. In the infancy of the art of navigation, we may
suppose that the implements of war, when constructed of wood,
may have frequently been used as paddles, or those employed for
paddles have been used in the fight, and this may perhaps
account for the circumstance that, throughout these regions, the
club, sword, and paddle pass into each other by imperceptible
gradations. In the Friendly Isles we may notice a still further
development of this form into the long wooden spear, specimens
of which, from this Institution, are exhibited (figs. 68, 69, and 70).

We must not expect to find all the connecting links in one
country or island. We know that the same race has at different
times spread over a very wide area; that the Polynesians,
New Zealanders, and Malays are all of the same stock, speaking
the same or cognate languages. The same race spread to the
shores of America on the one side, and to Madagascar on the
other, carrying with them their arts and implements, and we
may, therefore, naturally expect that the links which are missing
in one locality may be supplied in another.

Development of the Australian Boomerang.
We now turn to the Australians, a race which, being in the
lowest stage of cultivation of any with whom we are acquainted,

122 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

must be regarded as the best representatives of aboriginal
man.

I have transferred the Australian sword, Plate XIV (diagram 3),
fig. 61, to Plate XV (diagram 4), fig. 72, in order that from it we
may be able to trace the development of a weapon supposed by some
to be peculiar to this country, but one which in reality has had
a very wide range in the earliest stages of culture ; I allude to
the boomerang.1

The Australians, in the manufacture of all their weapons,
follow the natural grain of the wood, and this leads them into
the adoption of every conceivable curve. The straight sword
would by this means at once assume the form of the boomerang,
which, it will be seen by the diagram, is constructed of every
shade of curve from the straight line to the right angle, the
curve invariably following the natural grain of the wood, that is
to say, the bend of the piece of a stem or branch out of which
the implement was fabricated.

All savage nations are in the habit of throwing their weapons
at the enemy. The desire to strike an enemy at a distance,
without exposing one's self within the range of his weapons, is
one deeply seated in human nature, and requires neither
explanation nor comment. Even apes, as I have already noticed,
are in the habit of throwing stones. The North American
Indian throws his tomahawk ; the Indians of the Grand Chako,
in South America, throw the 'macana', a kind of club. We

1 Since this paper was read to the Eoyal United Service Institution, Sir
John Lubbock has delivered a remarkably interesting series of lectures on
savages, in the course of which he took exception to my classification of
the Indian, African, and Australian boomerangs, under the same head ; giving
as his reason that the Australian boomerang has a return flight, whilst those
of other nations have not that peculiarity. If it could be shown that the
Australian weapon had been contrived for the purpose of obtaining a return
flight, I should then agree with him in regarding the difference as generic.
But the course of my investigations tends to show that this was probably an
application of the weapon accidentally hit upon by the Australians, and that
it arose from a modification of weight and form, so trivial as to prevent our
regarding it as generically distinct from the others. I therefore consider the
Australian weapon to be a mere variety of the implement which is common
to the three continents. The difference between us on this point, though
one of terms, is nevertheless important as a question of continuity. I am
much gratified, however, to find my opinions on many other points supported
by Sir John's high authority.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 123

learn from the travels of Mr. Blount,1 in the Levant in 1634,
that at that time the Turks, used the mace to throw, as well as
for striking. The Kaffirs throw the knob-kerry, as did also the
Fidasians of Western Africa.2 The Fiji Islanders are in the
habit of throwing a precisely similar club. The Franks are
supposed to have thrown the ' francisca \3 The New Zealander
throws his c pattoo-pattoo ', and the Australian throws the 'dowak'
and the waddy, as well as his boomerang. All these weapons
spin of their own accord when thrown from the hand. In
practising with the boomerang, it will be found that it does
not require that any special movement of rotation should 'be
imparted to it, but if thrown with the point first it must
inevitably rotate in its flight. The effect of this rotation, it will
hardly be necessary to remind those acquainted with the laws of
projectiles, is to preserve the axis and plane of rotation parallel
to itself, upon the principle of the gyroscope. By this means
the thin edge of the weapon would be constantly opposed to the
atmosphere in front, whilst the flat sides, if thrown horizontally,
would meet the air opposed to it by the action of gravitation ;
the effect, of course, would be to increase the range of the
projectile, by facilitating its forward movement, and impeding
its fall to the earth. This much, all curved weapons of the
boomerang form possess as a common property.

If any large collection of boomerangs from Australia be
examined, it will be seen that they vary not only in their curva-
ture, but also in their section ; some are much thicker than others,
some are of the same breadth throughout, whilst others bulge in
the centre ; some are heavier than others, some have an additional
curve so as to approach the form of an S, some have a slight
twist laterally, some have an equal section on both sides, while
others are nearly flat on one side and convex on the other.

As all these varieties continued to be employed, it would soon
be perceived that peculiar advantages were derived from the use
of the flatter class of weapon, especially such as are flat on the
under side, for by throwing these in such a manner as to catch
the air on the flat side, instead of falling to the ground they

1 Henry Blount, Voyage into the Levant, 1634 (London, 1671), p. 91.

2 Bosnian, Guinea, Pinkerton (1811), vol. xvi. pp. 505-6.

3 Kemble, Home Ferales (1863), p. 65.

124 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

would rise in the air. precisely in the same manner that a kite,
(fig. 71), when the boy runs forward with the string, rises and con-
tinues to rise as long as it is kept up by the action of the air
beneath. In like manner the boomerang, as long as the forward
movement imparted to it by the thrower continues, will continue
to rise, and the plane of rotation, instead of continuing perfectly
parallel to its original position, will be slightly raised by the
action of the atmosphere on the forward side. When the move-
ment of transition ceases, the boomerang will begin to fall, and
its course in falling will be by the line of least resistance, which
is in the direction of the edge that lies obliquely towards the
thrower; it will therefore fall back in the same manner that
a kite, when the string is suddenly broken, is seen to fall back
for a short distance ; but as the kite has received no movement of
rotation to cause it to continue in the same plane of descent, it
soon loses its parallelism, and falls in a series of fantastic curves
towards the ground. The boomerang will do the same thing if it
loses its movement of rotation; but as long as this continues,
which it usually does after the forward movement has ceased, it
continues to fall back upon the same inclined plane by which it
ascended, and finally reaches the ground at the feet of the thrower.
There are various ways of throwing the boomerang, but the
principles here enunciated will explain the course of its flight in
whatever manner it may be thrown.

Now it is evident that this peculiar mode of flight would be of
great advantage to the savage, for as we learn from a paper in
Trans. Ethnological Society (N.S. iii. pp. 264-5), by Mr. 01dfield,who
speaks from experience, the natives usually employ this weapon
against large flocks of ducks or wild-fowl in rivers or marshes ;
the weapon after striking or missing the prey would return to
the thrower, instead of being lost in the morass ; its use, there-
fore, would give to the individual or tribe possessing it a great
advantage over their neighbours in the struggle for life.

But it is evident that the principles of the flight of the boom-
erang, such as I have described it, according to the recognized
law of projectiles, must have been entirely unknown to the
savage ; he can no more be said to have invented the boomerang
than he can be said to have invented the art of sustaining life by
nourishment. Instinct prompts him to eat; little better than

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 125

instinct would enable him to select from amongst his weapons
such as are found most suitable for obtaining- food ; and we have
already seen how he may have been led to the adoption of such
an instrument as the boomerang1, purely through the laws of
accidental variation, guided by the natural grain of the material
in which he worked.

The boomerang, though used chiefly for game, is used also as
a weapon, and Mr. Oldfield says that it is capable of inflicting
a wound several inches in depth.

A further movement is effected in the flight of the boomerang
by giving the arms a slight lateral twist, by means of which 'it
is caused to rise by virtue of its rotation, screwing itself up in
the air precisely in the same manner that a boy's flying top rises
to the ceiling. By means of this addition, the weapon is some-
times made to strike an object in its fall to the ground, behind
the thrower, but the twist is not by any means invariable, as any
one may see by examining a collection of these weapons. Nor is it
essential to ensure a return fall, which I have frequently ascer-
tained by practising with a boomerang that was perfectly flat.

In examining Plate XV (diagram 4), it will be seen that the
boomerang passes by imperceptible gradations from the straight
sword, fig. 72, on the one hand, into the ' malga ', a kind of pick,
fig. 89, used for war purposes, on the other x} and this Australian
malga closely resembles a weapon of the same kind from New
Caledonia, figs. 90 and 91, which, as already mentioned, is used
both as a weapon and for tilling the ground. In Plate XV
(diagram 5), figs. 92 to 100, 1 have also arranged the links of con-
nexion between the boomerang and a kind of hatchet or chopper
called the waddy. A slight swell or projection is seen to grow
out of one end of the concave side of the boomerang, and this
develops into the form of a chopper. In those specimens of this
class in which the projection is only slightly developed, as in
figs. 94 and 95, the sides of the implement are flat, and the
weapon is obviously designed for throwing, but in some of those
in which the projection is more fully developed, as in fig. 96, the
shaft is quite round, and the head becomes thick and heavy, so
as to render it totally unsuited to the purposes of a missile. We

1 This weapon is called ' leowel ' by the Australians now in this
country (1868).

126 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

see, therefore, in this diagram, the transition, by minute grada-
tions, from a missile to a hand weapon, or vice versa. The
boomerang, the sword, the malga, and the waddy, are thus seen
to be allied in such a manner as to make it difficult to determine
which of the four was the original weapon, and, if properly
arranged to display their development, they should be distributed
in branch lines, starting from a common centre, exactly in the
same manner that I have suggested the various forms of spear
and arrow-heads ought to be arranged in the natural order of
progression. [See, for example, Plate III, and pp. 37-8, above.]

Indian Boomerangs.

In Plate XV (diagram 6), figs. 101-5, I have arranged a series
of boomerangs from India. Figures 101 and 102 are specimens
of the ' katureea ' or boomerang of Goojerat, from the Indian
Museum ; they are used by the coolies, according to the ticket
in the Museum, f for whirling at hares, boars, and other wild
animals, and disabling them/ It is of ' raen ' wood, thicker and
heavier than the Australian specimens, and therefore not
adapted to rise in the air and return. The section is equal
on both sides, but in other respects it is precisely identical
with the Australian weapon, and appears to have been roughly
chipped into form. Figures 103 and 104 are of an improved
form, from Madras, called the ' collery ', also of wood, but having
a knob at the handle end ; they are from the Museum of this
Institution. Figure 105 is precisely the same form in steel,
from the India Museum. It is probable that this weapon led
to the use of the steel 'chakra'' or war quoit (fig. 106) of
which I have given an illustration from the Museum of this
Institution. The principle of its flight is precisely that of the
boomerang, in so far as regards the increase of range and
velocity produced by the rotation preserving the thin edge in
the line of its forward motion. The earliest mention of this
instrument is in the description of the Malabar Coast, by
Magellan, about 1512, translated by Mr. Stanley, for the
Hakluyt Society. The author describes amongst the arms used
in the kingdom of Dely, certain wheels called chacarani, ftwo
fingers broad, sharp outside like knives, and without edge
inside, and the surface of these is of the size of a small plate,

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 127

and they carry seven or eight of these each, put on the left
arm, and they take one and put it on the finger of the right
hand, and make it spin round many times, so that they hurl it
at their enemies, and if they hit any one on the arm or neck, it
cuts through all, and with these they carry on much fighting,
and are very dexterous/ 1 These weapons are usually worn on
the head, but the circumstance here mentioned of their being
worn on the arm, reminds us very much of the peculiar weapon
worn by the Djibba negroes of Central Africa as a bracelet;
this is represented in figure 107 ; it is of iron, sharp on the
outside and blunt on the inside, which touches the arm ; the
edge is usually covered with a strip of hide to prevent injury
to the person. I am not aware that this weapon of the negroes
is ever used as a missile, but the occurrence of two such singular
weapons, similarly carried, is worthy of notice, more particularly
as we have clea.r evidence of a connexion between the metal-
workers of the whole continent of Africa and the hill tribes
of Central India.

It is possible that many links of connexion may be supplied
when the subject of continuity comes to be more carefully
studied in these countries. It would appear extremely probable
that the small Koorkeree and Goorkah knife, though now used
only for hand fight, may have had their origin in these missile
weapons, which they resemble in form, especially the large
Goorkah knife. It would be interesting to know if they are ever
thrown. I have heard stories of this having been the case, but no
authentic account of such a practice. The Spaniards throw their
long clasp-knives with effect for a considerable distance.

African Boomerangs.

Turning to Africa (Plate XV, diagram 7), we find the
boomerang well represented in many parts of that continent.
Figure 108 is an ancient Egyptian boomerang of wood, in the
British Museum. It was obtained from the collection of James
Burton, Jr., Esq., which was formed by him in Egypt, and is
described as ' an instrument for fowling, for throwing at, or
knocking down birds, as is continually represented on the walls

1 Duarte Barbosa, A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar (by
Magellan), translated by the Hon. H. E. Stanley : Hakluyt Society, xxxv
(1866), pp. 100-1.

128 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [h

of the tombs '. It is of hard but light wood, the section is
symmetrical on both sides, and not flat on one side, like some of
the Australian boomerangs ; it is somewhat broader at the ends
than in the middle of the blade. Figures 100, 110, and 111,
are taken from Rosellini's Egyptian Monuments} and show how
this instrument was used by the ancient Egyptians. Sir Samuel
Baker has described the weapon called the ' trombash ', used in
those parts of Abyssinia which he traversed.2 It is of hard
wood, resembling the Australian boomerang, about two feet in
length, and the end turns sharply at an angle of 30° ; they
throw this with great dexterity, and inflict severe wounds with
the hard and sharp edge, but, unlike the boomerang, it does not
return to the thrower. Figure 113 is a wooden instrument, in
the Christy Collection, said to be used by the Djibba negroes
for throwing at birds. Figure 114 is the Nubian sword, which
in form exactly resembles the boomerang. They have a great
variety of curves, some of them, especially those of the same
form used in Abyssinia, bending nearly in a right angle. I am
not aware that this instrument is ever thrown by the Nubians ;
they, however, are in the habit of throwing their curved clubs
with great dexterity. Figure 115 is an iron implement of native
workmanship, used as a missile by the inhabitants of Central
Africa ; it was brought from that region by Consul Petherick,
at whose sale I purchased it. Like the majority of the
succeeding figures represented in this diagram, it resembles
the Australian boomerang, in being flat on the under side,
that is to say, upon the side which would be undermost, if
thrown from the right hand with the point first; the weight,
however, would prevent such a weapon from rising in the air,
or returning to the thrower. Figure 116 is used by the Mundo
tribe of Africa ; like the last, it is flat on the under side ; in
form it resembles the falchion, represented in the Egyptian
sculptures as being held in the hand by Rameses and other
figures, when slaying their enemies. The small knob on one
side of the blade is used to attach it to the person in carrying
it. Figure 117, from Central Africa, is clearly a development
of the preceding figure. Figure 118 is a weapon of the same

1 Kosellini, MonumenU delV Egitio e della Nubia (Pisa, 1834), Monuments
Civiles, pi. cxvii. 3 ; cxix. 1.

2 Baker, Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia (London, 1867), p. 511.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 129

class, from Kordofan, obtained near the cataracts of Assouan,
Upper Nile, and now in the Museum of this Institution;
though of the same character as the other missiles, its section
is equal on both sides, and therefore it is not calculated to range
far in its flight. Figure 119 is also from the Museum of this
Institution ; it is flat on the under side. Figures 120 and 121 are
from illustrations in Denham and Clapperton's Travels in Northern
and Central Africa (PI. xli. 3, 4), of the missile instruments, called
' hunga-mungas ', used by the negro tribes, south of Lake Tchad.
One of these is of very peculiar form; in the course of the
innumerable variations which this weapon appears to have
undergone, the constructor appears to have hit upon the idea
of representing the head and neck of a stork. Figure 122 is
from a sketch, in Bartb/s Travels, of one of these weapons,
belonging to the Marghi, a negro tribe in the same region ; it
is called 'danisco', and he says that the specimen here repre-
sented is of particularly regular shape, thereby inferring that
numerous varieties of form are in use among these people. In
another place, he describes the ' goliyo ' of the Musgu and the
fnjiga' of the Bagirmi, as weapons of the same class, the name
of the latter differing from the word for spear only in a single
letter; he says this weapon is common to all the pagan, i.e.
negro tribes, that he came across.1 Figure 123 is from East
Central Africa, presented to the Christy Collection by the
Viceroy of Egypt ; it is described as a cutting instrument, from
the country of the Dinkas and Shillooks, capable of being
thrown to a great distance. Mr. Petherick met with these
tribes in his travels on the White Nile.2 Figure 124, from my
collection, is described as a battle-axe of the Dor tribe, between
the equator and the 6th or 7th degree of north latitude. It
was brought to England by Mr. Petherick, who obtained it in
his travels in 1858 ; it is used also for throwing. Figure 125
is from an illustration in Du Chaillu's work,3 of the missile
tomahawk, used by the Fans in the Gaboon, in West Central
Africa ; he says that the thrower aims at the head, and, after
killing his victim, uses the round edge of the axe to cut off the

1 Barth, I. c, vol. iii. pp. 231, 451, &c, &c.

2 Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa (1881), p. 456.

3 Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (London, 1861),
p. 79.

p.r. K

130 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

head. We see from this, that notwithstanding the innumerable
and apparently meaningless variations which this weapon has
undergone, the different parts of it are sometimes applied to
especial uses. Figure 126 is another missile, used by the Neam-
Nam tribes, East Central Africa. Mr. Petherick says, that the
Baer tribe carry a different kind of iron missile from the Neam-
Nams. Figures 126 to 129 are different varieties of Neam-
Nam weapons, in which, as they are all derived from the same
people, the gradual transition of form is more perceptible than
in those isolated specimens derived from different tribes. If,
however, we had specimens of all the varieties used by each tribe,
we should without doubt be able to trace the progression of the
whole of them from a common form. As it is, the connexion
is sufficiently obvious when the details are examined, throughout
the whole region in which they are found, extending from
Egypt and the Nile in the East, to the Gaboon on the West
Coast. In all, the principle of construction is the same, the
divergent lateral blades serving the purpose of wings, like the
arms of the Australian boomerang, to sustain the weapon in the
air when spun horizontally. The variations are such as might
have resulted from successive copies, little or no improvement
being perceivable in the principle of construction throughout
this region, notwithstanding the innumerable forms through
which it must have passed during its transmission from its
original source ; the locality of which we shall probably be
unable to determine, until the antiquities of the country have
been more carefully described and studied. As, however, it is
everywhere found in the hands of the negro aborigines of the
country, it must probably have had the same origin as the art
of smelting and fabricating iron, which is everywhere identical
throughout this region, and is, without doubt, of the remotest
antiquity, dating long prior to any historical record of the
continent of Africa.

Cateia.
The possible employment of the boomerang in Europe has
been made the subject of occasional speculation amongst anti-
quarian writers. Having been used in Egypt, and perhaps in
Assyria, there is no good reason for doubting that it may have
spread from thence to the north-west. In a learned paper on

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 131

the subject in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xix
(1843), § 'Literature/ p. 22, PI. i, ii, Mr. Samuel Ferguson
endeavours to prove that the f cateia' mentioned by classical authors
was the boomerang. He quotes several passages, and amongst
them one from Virgil (Aeneid vii. 741), in which mention is
made of a people accustomed to whirl the c cateia ' after the
Teutonic manner. In the Punica of Silius (hi. 327), one of the
Libyan tribes which accompanied Hannibal to Italy is described
as being armed with a bent or crooked ' cateia \ Isidore, Bishop
of Seville, a writer of the end of the sixth and beginning of the
seventh century, described the ' cateia ;asfa species of bat, which,
when thrown, flies not far, by reason of its weight, but where it
strikes, it breaks through with extreme impetus, and if it be
thrown with a skilful hand, it returns back again to him who
dismissed it'' (Origines, xviii. 7. 7).

Strabo also (pp. 196-7) describes the Belgae of his time, as
using ' a wooden weapon of the shape of a grosphus, which they
throw out of hand . . . which flies farther than an arrow, and is
chiefly used in the pursuit of game '.

General Conclusions relative to the Boomerang.

Those who desire further information relative to its supposed
use in Europe, cannot do better than refer to the paper from
which I have quoted. Meanwhile, enough has been said to
show : — (1) that the boomerang was used in many different
countries at a very early period, and in a very primitive condition
of culture, and that it was everywhere employed chiefly in the
pursuit of game ; (2) that it was everywhere constructed of
wood, before it was copied in metal ; (3) that in Australia it
originated as a variety of the almond- or leaf-shaped sword,
and was suggested by the natural curvature of the material out
of which it was formed ; (4) that the subsequent improvements
by which its return flight was ensured, arose from a practical
selection of suitable varieties, and was not the result of design,
and (5) that the form of the boomerang passes by minute grada-
tions into at least three other classes of weapons in common use
by the same people, and may therefore be regarded as a branch
variety of an original normal type of implement, used by the
most primitive races as a general tool or weapon.

k %

132 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Development of the Club.
Amongst other implements used for war, the form of which
appears to be derived from the same common source as those
already described, may be included the Australian club, and the
wamera or throwing stick. I have arranged in Plate XVI, dia-
gram 8, figs. 130 to 137, a series of Australian clubs, showing a
transition from the plain stick, of equal size throughout, to one
having a nearly round knob at one end. Nearly similar forms
to some of these, from Africa, figs. 138 to 140, are also repre-
sented on the same diagram.

Contrivances for Throwing the Spear.

Amongst the Australian ' wameras', there are so many varieties,
that it is next to impossible to speculate upon the priority of
any particular form, unless the plain stick, with a projecting
peg at one end, may be regarded as certainly the simplest, and
therefore the earlier form. The c wamera ' is held in the right
hand, and the projecting peg at the end is fitted into a cavity at
the end of the spear, which latter is held in the left hand, in the
required direction, until just before the moment of throwing.
The spear is then impelled to its destination by the wamera,
which gives great additional impetus to the arm. Fig. 147 is a
wamera from Nicol Bay, of exactly the same general outline as
the sword already figured from that locality, figs. 61 and 62,
except that one of the faces at the end of which the peg is
fastened, is concave, and the other convex ; this specimen is in
the Christy Collection. The wamera assumes a great variety of
forms ; some, as for example fig. 142, resemble on a small scale
the New Zealand paddle, the broad end being held in the hand,
and the peg inserted in the small end ; others, broad and flat,
figs. 148 to 150, bulge out in the middle by successive grada-
tions, until they approach the form of a shield. No reasonable
cause that I am aware of, can be assigned for these different
forms; beyond caprice, and the action of the law of incessant
variation, which is constant in its operation amongst all the
works of the aborigines.

The wamera is found on the north-west x and south-

1 Gregory's account of his expedition in 1861, Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, vol. xxxii (1862), p. 378.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 133

west 1 coasts of Australia, and Major Mitchell describes it in
the east and central parts of the continent.2

That the wamera preceded the bow, appears probable from the
fact that no bow is ever used in Australia, unless occasionally
upon the north coast, where it is derived from the Papuans. The
bow is not indigenous in New Zealand, or in any of those islands
of the Pacific which are peopled by the Polynesian race ; it
belongs truly to the Papuans, and where it is used elsewhere in
the Pacific Islands as a toy, it may very probably have been
derived from their Papuan neighbours. The throwing stick is
used in New Zealand, in which country Mr. Darwin describes
the practice with them. f A cap,' he says, ' being fixed at
30 yards distance, they transfixed it with the spear delivered by
the throwing stick, with the rapidity of an arrow from the bow of
a practised archer/ 3 In New Guinea, Captain Cook saw the lance
thrown 60 yards, as he believed, by the throwing stick.4 I saw
the Australians, now exhibiting on Kennington Common (1868),
throw their spears with the wamera nearly 100 yards extreme
range, but as they practised only for range, I had no opportunity
of observing the accuracy of flight. Mr. Oldfield says that
their practice has been much exaggerated by the European
settlers, in order to justify acts on their part, which would other-
wise appear cowardly. He says, that a melon having been put
up at a distance of 30 yards, many natives practised at it for an
hour without hitting it, after which an European, who had
accustomed himself to the use of this weapon, struck it five
times out of six with his spear. Klemm, on the other hand, has
collected several accounts of their dexterity in the use of it ; he
says, that the range is 90 yards, and mentions that Captain Phillip
received a wound several inches deep at 30 paces. At 40 paces,
he says, the aborigines are always safe of their mark (1. c, p. 32). A
sharp flint is usually fixed with gum into the handle of the wamera,
which they use for sharpening the points of their spears.

1 Oldfield, ' On the Aborigines of Australia,' Trans. Ethnol. Soc, vol. iii.
pp. 261-2.

2 Expedition to the Interior of Eastern Australia, by Major T. L. Mitchell,
Surveyor-General, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. ii. pp. 325-6.

3 [Darwin, Journal.'] (But the quotation (from Darwin, Journal of Researches
(London, 1845) pp. 433-4) refers to Australia, not New Zealand. — Ed.)

* Cook, Tfiird Voyage (London, 1842), vol. i. p. 273.,

134 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

The throwing stick (fig. 151) is used by the Esquimaux
throughout the regions they inhabit. Frobisher1 mentions it
on the east, Captain Beechey on the north-west, and Cranz
describes its use in Greenland.2 Klemm says (1. c, p. 39), that the
throwing stick used in the Aleutian Isles, differs from that of the
Greenlander in having a cavity, to receive the end of the spear,
instead of a projecting tang. The Esquimaux stick generally
differs from the Australian in form, and has usually holes cut to
receive the fingers, which by this means secure a firm grasp of
the instrument. The custom of forming holes or depressions in
an implement to receive the fingers was very widely spread
in prehistoric times. I have specimens of stones so indented,
used probably as hammers, from Ireland, Yorkshire, Denmark,
and Central India. In the Christy Collection there is one pre-
cisely similar from the Andaman Isles.

The only other race that is known to make use of the throwing
stick is the Purus-Purus Indians of South America, inhabiting
a tributary of the Amazon. These people have no bow, and in
many other respects resemble the Australians in their habits.
Their throwing stick is called ' palheta ' ; it has a projection
at the end, to fit into the end of the spear, and is handled exactly
in the same manner as the Australian ' wamera'.3

Another kind of spear-thrower, consisting of a loop for the
finger and a thong by which it is fastened to the spear, is used
in New Caledonia, and Tanna, New Hebrides (fig. 152). On
ordinary occasions this is carried by being suspended to an armlet
on the left arm, but, when preparing for war, they fasten it on
to the middle of their spears. I exhibit here, fig. 153, a precisely
similar contrivance from Central Africa, from my collection.
Judging by the spiral ferrule, at the end of the lance to which
it is attached, it appears to be derived from Central or East
Central Africa. This mode of increasing the range of the
dart or javelin was well known to the ancients, and was called
by the Greeks aynvXr], and by the Romans 'amentum'; it is
represented on the Etruscan vases, and is figured in Smith's

1 Frobisher, Tlie Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, ed. Collinson (Hakluyt
Society, 1867), p. 283.

2 Cranz, Historie von Gronland"1 (1770), pp. 195-6, pi. v. 2/.

3 Markham, Tribes of the Valley of the Amazon. — Trans. Ethnol. Soc, N.S., vol. iii..
p. 183.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 135

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, from which the
drawing given in fig. 154 is, taken.1 One of the effects produced
by this contrivance was, doubtless, to give the weapon a rotary
motion, and thereby to increase the accuracy of its flight, upon
the same principle as the rifling of a bullet ; but the range and
velocity were also increased, by enabling the thrower, the tip of
whose forefinger was passed through the loop of the ' amentum',
to press longer upon the spear, and thus impart a greater velocity
to it, in the same manner that the effect of the Australian
wamera may be said to increase the length of the thrower's arm.
The Emperor Napoleon, who, as we all know, has paid great
attention to these weapons of the ancients, caused experiments to
be conducted, under his own personal supervision, at Saint Ger-
main, the result of which showed that the range of a spear was
increased from 20 to 80 meters by the use of this accessory.2

Transition from Club to Shield {Australia).
My next example of variation of form is taken from the
Australian ' heileman ' , or shield. It may, on the first cursory
consideration of the subject, appear fanciful to suppose that
so simple a contrivance as the shield could require to have
a history, or that the plain round target, for example, so common
amongst many savage nations, could be the result of a long
course of development. Surely, it may be said, the shells of
tortoises or the thick hides of beasts would, from the first, have
supplied so simple a contrivance. But the researches in palaeo-
ethnology teach us that such was not the case ; man came into
the world naked and defenceless, and it was long before he
acquired the art of defending himself in this manner. His first
weapon, as I have already said, was a stone or a stick, and it is
from one or other of these, that we must trace all subsequent
improvements. The stick became a club, and it is to this alone
that many of the earliest races trust for the defence of their
persons. The Dinkas of East Central Africa have no shields,
using the club, and a stick, hooked at both ends (PI. XVI, fig. 170),
to ward off lances.3 The Shoua and the Bagirmi of Central

1 Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (s.v. Hasta).

2 Desor, Les Palafittes ou Constructions Lacustres du Lac de Neuchdtel (Paris, 1865),
p. 87.

5 Petherick, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa (1861), p. 391.

136 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

Africa rarely carry shields, and they use a foreign name for it.1
The Khonds, hill tribes of Central India, have never adopted the
shield.2 The inhabitants of Tahiti use no shield.3 The Sandwich
Islanders use no shield or weapon of defence, employing the
javelin to ward off lances : like the Australians, and, like the
Bushmen, they are very expert in dodging the weapons of their
enemies. In Samoa the club, is used for warding off lances, and
the warriors frequently exercise themselves in this practice. The
' kerri ' sticks of the Hottentots are used for warding off stones
and assegais.4

The club head formed by the divergent roots of a tree (PI. XVI,
fig. 155), offers great advantages in enabling the warrior to catch the
arrows in their flight, and this led to the use of the jagged mace-
head form of club, which is here represented from many different
localities. Fig. 155 is from Fiji, fig. 157 from Central Africa,
fig. 156 from Australia, fig. 158 from New Guinea, and fig. 159
from the Friendly Isles. The curved clubs, of which a great
variety are found in the hands of savages in every part of the
world, are exceedingly well adapted to catch and throw off the
enemy's arrow. The Australian 'malga'', or 'leowel'', as it is
called by the Australians now in this country, and already
described (pp. 125-6), is used in this manner.

By degrees, instead of using the club as a general weapon,
offensive and defensive, especial forms would be used for defence,
whilst others would be retained for offensive purposes; but the
shield for some time would continue to be used merely as
a parrying instrument. Such it is in Australia. In its most
primitive form, it is merely a kind of stick with an aperture cut
through it in the centre for the hand. The fore part varies with
the shape of the stem out of which it was made; in some it
is round, in others flat. This form appears to have branched off
into two varieties ; one developed laterally, and at last assumed the
form of a pointed oval, as represented in Plate XVI, figs. 165 to
169; these are frequently scored on the front with grooves to catch
the lance points. The other variety appears to have assumed

1 Barth, 1. c, vol. iii. p. 450.

2 Campbell, Thirteen Years amongst the Wild Tribes ofKhondistan (London, 1864),
p. 40.

3 Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1829), vol. ii. p. 489.

* Kolb, Reise an das Capo du Bonne Esperance (Niirnberg, 1719), pp. 477-8.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 137

a pointed form in front, so as to make the spear glance off to
one side, as represented in figs. 160 to 164. The Australians are
exceedingly skilful in parrying with these shields. One of the
feats of the Australians now in this country, consists in parrying
cricket balls thrown with full force by three persons at the
same time. The ' heileman' is cut out of the solid tree and, like all
their other weapons, invariably follows the grain of the wood.

In 1861, Mr. Oldfield, when engaged in collecting specimens
of timber for the International Exhibition, came upon one of
these shields, nearly finished, and abandoned, but only requiring
a few strokes to detach it from the growing tree; and he noticed
the immense time and labour it must have cost the native to
construct it, not less than 30 cubic feet of wood having been
removed in digging it out of the tree with no better tool than
a flint fixed to the end of a stick. Trees of sufficient size for
these shields are not found in all parts of Australia, and in those
places where they are wanting, the natives only obtain them by
traffic with other tribes. The same cause may also account, in
some measure, for the varieties of their form, yet, notwithstand-
ing these numerous varieties, they never leave the normal type
throughout the continent, and you might as well expect to see
the Australian using a firelock of native manufacture, as to
find in his hands the circular flat shield which is common in
Africa, America, and ancient Europe.

Transition from Club to Shield {Africa) .

In Africa, the development of the shield appears to have followed
precisely the same course, commencing with the plain stick or
club, PI. XVI, fig. 170, and passing through the varieties repre-
sented in figs. 171, 172, and 173, which are scarcely distinguish-
able from the Australian fheileman', to the oval shield of the
Kaffirs, fig. 174, and of the Upper Nile, figs. 175 and 176, which
are of ox hide, but show their origin by a stick passing down
the centre and grasped in the hand ; with this stick they parry
and turn off the lances of the assailant precisely in the same
manner that the Australian employs the projecting point at the
end] of his oval shield. Judging by the side views represented
in the Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures, similar shields were
used by the ancients, and we may especially notice the Assyrian

138 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

shield, of small dimensions, fig. 178, mentioned by Mr. Rawlinson
as being- represented in the Assyrian sculptures, and having pro-
jecting spikes on the fore part, to catch and throw off the
enemy's weapons (Five Great Monarchies (1864), vol. ii. p. 51).

Development of the Shield.

All these antique shields have one other feature in common
with the shields of existing aborigines, viz. that they are held
by a handle in the centre. It was only in a more advanced age,
when armies began to fall into serried ranks, that the broad
shield was introduced and held upon the left arm, a mode of
carrying it ill adapted to the requirements of the light-armed
combatants. Besides the oval, the shield took other forms, but
appears always to have been narrow in its earliest developments :
fig. 176 from the Upper Nile closely resembles in outline fig. 177
from the New Hebrides. Livy describes the shields of the Gauls
in the attack of Mount Olympus, B.C. 189, as being too narrow
to defend them against the missiles of the Romans, and he also
describes them as brandishing their shields in a peculiar manner
practised in their original country.1 This must without doubt
have been connected with the operation of parrying. Sir Walter
Scott describes the Scotch parrying with their shields. Shields
in the form of a figure 8 are met with in various countries ;
Captain Grant describes the Unyamwezi as carrying a shield
of this form.2 Fig. 179 from this Institution is from Central
Africa, of a very primitive form. Fig. 180 is of the same shape
from New Guinea, and the beautiful bronze shield, fig. 1813, of
the late Celtic period, in the British Museum, found in the
Thames, appears to be of an allied form. Fig. 182 is an ox-hide
shield of the Basutos; it is allied to that of the Kaffirs, Fig. 174,
by having a stick at the back, and the peculiar wings with which
it is furnished connect it with that of the Fans of the Gaboon, on
the West Coast, fig. 183, which latter is of elephant hide and has
no stick at the back. No connexion that I am aware of is known
to have existed between these remote tribes, which are of totally
different races, but the forms of their shields here represented
must, I think, have been derived from a common source.

1 Livy, Book xxxviii. ch. 17 and 21. 2 Grant, Walk across Africa, p. 69.
3 Kemble, Horae Ferales (1863), p. 190, pi. xiv.

ii] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 139

Concluding Remarks.

It would be quite impossible within the space of a single
lecture to produce more than a very small portion indeed of the
evidence which is available in support of my arguments. If
the principles which I have enunciated are sound, they must be
applicable to the whole of the arts of mankind and to all time.
If it can be proved that a single art, contrivance, custom, or
institution, sprang into existence in violation of the law of
continuity, and was not the offspring of some prior growth,
it will disprove my theory. If in the whole face of nature there
is undoubted evidence of any especial fiat of creation having
operated capriciously, or in any other manner than by gradual
evolution and development, my principles are false.

It would be a violation of the law of continuity, for example,
if the principles which I am now advocating, in common with
many others at the present time, opposed as they are to many
preconceived notions, were suddenly to receive a general and
widespread acceptance. This also, like other offsprings of the
human mind, must be a work of development, and it will require
time and the labours of many individuals to establish it as the
truth, if truth it be.

Meanwhile it may be well that I should briefly sum up
the several points which I have endeavoured to prove on the
present occasion.

I have endeavoured to prove in the first place, though I must
here repeat that I have produced only a very small portion of
the evidence on the subject, that all the implements of the stone
age are traceable by variation to a common form, and that form
the earliest ; that their improvement spread over a period so long
as to witness the extinction of many wild breeds of animals;
that it was so gradual as to require no effort of genius or of
invention; and that it was identical in all parts of the world.

I have shown in the second place, that all the weapons of the
Australians which I have described, are traceable by variation to
the same common form, or to forms equally as primitive as those
of the stone age of Europe ; that it is perfectly consistent with
the phenomena observed, that these variations may have resulted,
or at least may have in a great measure been promoted by
accidental causes, such as the grain of the wood influencing the

140 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

shape of the weapon; that they were not invented or designed
for especial purposes, but that their application to such purposes
may have resulted from a selection of the implements already in
hand ; and that by this process, the natives of Australia, during
countless ages, may have crept on, almost unconsciously, from
the condition of brutes, to the condition of incipient culture in
which they are now found.

1 have compared these weapons of the Australians with others
of the same form in various parts of the world, showing grounds
for believing that whenever we shall be able to collect a sufficient
variety of specimens to represent the continuous progression of
each locality, the modus operandi will be found to have been
everywhere the same.

Lastly, I have alluded cursorily to the analogy which exists
between the development of the arts and the development of
species. It may be better to postpone any comprehensive gener-
alization on this subject until a much larger mass of evidence has
been collected and arranged. Sir Charles Lyell has devoted
a chapter in his work on the Antiquity of Man to a comparison
of the development of languages and the development of species.
1 We may compare/ he says, ' the persistency of languages, or the
tendency of each generation to adopt without change the vocabu-
lary of its predecessor, to the force of inheritance in the organic
world, which causes the offspring to resemble its parents. The
inventive power which coins new words or modifies old ones, and
adapts them to new wants and conditions as often as they arise,
answers to the variety-making power in the animal creation/
He also compares the selection of words and their incorporation into
the language of a people, with the selection of species, resulting in
both cases in the survival of the fittest (4th ed., 1873, p. 503).

Whilst, however, we dwell upon the analogy which exists
between the phenomena of the organic world and the phenomena
of human culture, we must not omit to notice the points of
difference. The force of inheritance may resemble in its effects
the principle of conservatism in the arts and culture of mankind,
but they are totally dissimilar causes.

The variety-making power may resemble the inventive power
of man; nothing, however, can be more dissimilar, except as
regards results.

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 141

When, therefore, we find that like results are produced through
the instrumentality of totally dissimilar causes, we must attribute
the analogy to some prior and more potent cause, influencing the
whole alike.

It might be premature to speculate upon the course of reason-
ing which this class of study is likely to introduce ; this much,
however, we may, I think, safely predict as the result of our
investigation, that we shall meet with no encouragement to deify
secondary causes.

Another subject to which we must necessarily be led by these
investigations, although, as I before said, it does not fall actually
within the scope of my paper, is the question of the unity or
plurality of the human race.

The ethnologist and the anthropologist who has not studied
the prehistoric archaeology of his own country compares the
present condition of savages with that of the Europeans with
whom they are brought in contact. He notices the vast disparity
of intellect between them. He finds the savage incapable of
education and of civilization, and evidently destined to fall away
before the white man whenever the races meet, and he jumps at
the conclusion that races so different in mental and physical
characteristics, must have had a distinct origin, and be the
offspring of separate creations. But the archaeologist traces
back the arts and institutions of his own people and country
until he finds that they once existed in a condition as low or
lower than that of existing savages, having the same arts, and
using precisely the same implements and weapons; and he
arrives at the conclusion that the difference observable between
existing races is one of divergence, and not of origin; that
owing to causes worthy of being carefully studied and investi-
gated, one race has improved, while another has progressed slowly
or remained stationary.

In this conclusion he is borne out by all analogy of nature, in
which he finds frequent evidences of difference produced by
variation, but no one solitary example of independent creation.
Are not all the branches of a young tree parts of the same
organism ; and yet one will be seen to throw up its shoots with
a vigorous and rapid growth, whilst another turns towards the
ground and ultimately decays ? Not to mention the variations

142 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [n

produced by the breeding of animals, with which we are all
more or less familiar, we see under our own eyes families of
men diverging in this manner. One branch, owing to causes
familiar to us in everyday life, will become highly cultivated,
whilst another continues to live on in a low condition of life, so
that in the course of a few years the disparity, mental and
physical, between these two branches, bearing the same name,
will be greater, in proportion to the time of separation, than that
which, in the course of countless ages, has separated the black
from the white man.

At the present time there is a tendency to rectify these in-
equalities, whether in regard to our own or to other races, and
there can be little doubt that in the course of time, all that
remains of the various races of mankind will be brought under
the influence of one civilization. But as this progressive move-
ment is often led by men who have not made the races of
mankind their study, they are perpetually falling into the error
of supposing, that the work of countless ages of divergence, is to
be put to rights by Act of Parliament, and by suddenly applying
to the inferior races of mankind laws and institutions for which
they are about as much fitted as the animals in the Zoological
Gardens.

In conclusion, I have only a few words to say upon the defects
of our ethnographical collections generally. It will be seen that
in order to exhibit the continuity and progression of form, I have
been obliged to collect and put together examples from many
different museums ; and, as it is, it will have been noticed that
many links of connexion are evidently wanting. This is owing,
in a great measure, to the very short period during which the
arts and customs of primaeval races have been made the subject of
scientific investigation ; but it also arises from the absence of
system on the part of travellers and collectors, who in former
times appear to have had but little knowledge of the evidence
which these specimens of the industry of the aborigines are
destined to convey, and who have, therefore, neglected to bring
home from the various regions they visited all the varieties of the
several classes of implements which each country is capable of
affording, thinking that one good example of a tool or weapon
might be taken as a sample of all the rest.

[J. It. V. 8. /., XFI. PI. xvii.]

Diagram I.

Plate XII.

Scale /,. fit 44_4Q m to scale

[J. li. V. S. I., XII. PI. xviii.]

Diagram 2.
DEVELOPMENT OF SPEAR & ARROW-HEAD FORMS.

Plate XIII.

DRIFT LEAF SHAPED

LOZENGE

TANG

TRIANGULAR

-"ii II #1

III*

' .. .3

168
163 164 16s 166 167 '*?

Otail

cave A 4 m

SWISS LAKES

'4

•

.5 16

♦ ♦

„ „ 20 „ „ ,3 fl . A

♦ *a*Ua| 1 I

27 28

YORKSHIRE

3>

^k 3° A 32 33 34 35 .' 37 3« 39

• ♦•..#♦♦♦***

40 41 42 43 44 45

♦ 4 A A A A

46 47 48 49

AaAA

IRELAND

5° 51 5*

Hi,,!

56 60 61 62 63 64* «s4 66 .67 ^ 7<>

77 . 79 81

.aAAaaA

SWEDEN & DENMARK

8z 83 84

Ml

8s 86

1 t

87 is, 95 ^

A 1 A ■ " 93 94 A

lll*4*A* II

97 98 99 100 101102103

104 105 106

aaAAIMAa*

ITALY & GERMANY

"5

107
» 108

A . ,0, 11. ...
T ¥ A 4 * A

"3 "4 "5 "6 "7

AMERICA I 4 I i A

118

In*

„4 ^k "6 "? ,28 "» 2[ T '33 '34 '35 '37 '38

ui4«inriii in

140 142 143 "44

A AAA A

'45
JAPAN 1 .46

) •

■47 '48 ISO ,5, '52

. .'« A i'53,S4.55

t+u44u*

56 157 158 159 160 161 i6z

aAAAaaA

[J. B. U. S. I.. XII. PI. xix.]

Diagram 3.
TRANSITION FROM CELT TO PADDLE SPEAR & SWORD FORMS

Plate XIV.

I! y

KM

5ro& ofFigs.50to63

69 10

Scale ofFigsMtoJO

[J. It. U. S. /., XII. PI. xx.]

Plate XV.

AUSTRALIA.
TRANSITION FROM THE MALGA TO THE BOOMERANG

INDIAN BOOMF. RANCS

Diagram €

AUSTRALIA.
TRANSITION FROM HATC H F-T TO THE BOOMERANG

AFRICAN BOOM.ERANGS

[J. B. V. S. I., XII. PI. xxi.]

AUSTRALIAN CLUBS

AUSTRALIAN THROWING STICKS.

Fig* 175 to 183 rwt to Scale

n] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 143

I am not so presumptuous as to suppose that the particular
arrangement, which I have adopted, may not require frequent
modification as our evidence accumulates ; but I trust that I shall
at least have made it apparent to those who have followed the
course of my argument, that without the connecting links which
unite one form with another, an ethnographical collection can be
regarded in no other light than a mere toy-shop of curiosities,
and is totally unworthy of science.

Owing to the wide distribution of our Army and Navy, the
members of which professions are dispersed over every quarter of
the globe and have ample leisure for the pursuit of these
interesting studies, this Institution possesses facilities for forming
a really systematic collection of savage weapons, not perhaps
within the power of any other Institution in the world. The
time is fast approaching when this class of prehistoric evidence
will no longer be forthcoming. The collection is already what,
for this country, must be regarded as a good one, and if I may
venture to hope that the remarks I have now the honour of
making will be of service in collecting the materials for the
improvement of it, I trust it may be thought that my labours
and your patience will not have been thrown away.

PKIMITIVE WARFARE

III

ON THE RESEMBLANCES OF THE WEAPONS OF EARLY RACES;
THEIR VARIATIONS, CONTINUITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
FORM : METAL PERIOD.1

Having in two previous lectures upon ' Primitive Warfare \
delivered at this Institution, spoken of the general principles to
be observed in studying the development of the weapons of
savages and early races, I need not preface the remarks I am
about to offer by any detailed allusion to the generalizations
which I have already ventured to make, but I will proceed at
once to lay before you some additional facts which I have col-
lected in continuation of the same subject.

This I do the more readily, because I hold strongly to the
opinion that the value of a communication of this kind may, in
a great degree, be measured by the attention which is paid to
the accumulation of facts, and to the comparative brevity and
simplicity of that portion of it which relates to theory. Without
general principles, however, we should have no incentive to
collect and systematize our facts, and they are therefore valuable
even where they involve — and in a new field of study, such as I
am now treating, with very scanty materials as yet at our dis-
posal to assist conjecture, I can hardly hope they should not
involve — a certain amount of error.

Before entering upon the subject of the origin of metal im-
plements, I must, however, revert to one part of my former
communication, in order to show that a statement I then made
in reference to the geographical distribution of the boomerang
has since had some light thrown upon it by the researches of
one of our most eminent men of science. It will, perhaps, be
remembered by those who did me the honour of reading my last
lecture, which was printed in vol. xii of the Journal, that, in

1 A Lecture delivered at the Royal United Service Institution on June 18,
1869, and published in the Journal of the E. V. S. Inst, vol. xiii (1869), pp. 509-
539, pi. xxxi-xxxiii ( = Plates XVII-XX herewith).

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 145

describing the weapons of the Australians, I showed, by means
of numerous illustrations of the varieties of each class of weapon
from that country, that they all passed one into the other by con-
necting links, so that where a sufficient number of them are
arranged in such a manner as to exhibit their continuity, it is
often impossible to determine any definite line of separation
between them. I also showed that the form of each weapon
was determined by the form of the stem or branch of the tree
out of which it was made, the outline of all these implements
conforming to the grain of the wood ; and the inference which I
drew from this was, that it showed a very low state of intellect
on the part of the constructors, the several classes of implements not
having been designed originally for their respective purposes, but
produced accidentally, and then applied during subsequent ages to
the several uses to which in practice they appeared most suited.

As we have no reason to suppose that the Australian continent
was peopled at a later date than other parts of the world, and
as there is no evidence upon that continent of the people inhabit-
ing it having ever been in a higher state of civilization than they
are at present, we have grounds for supposing that they must have
remained stationary, or have progressed very slowly, while the
inhabitants of other parts of the globe advanced more rapidly,
and that their existing arts and implements, simple and primitive
though they be, nevertheless represent the highest develop-
ment of constructive power to which these people have ever
attained. Hence it follows, that if the inhabitants of any other
portions of the globe can be traced to a common origin with the
Australians, viewing the persistency of type observable as a char-
acteristic of the arts of these people, and of all other people in
a primitive state of culture, we must expect to find some traces
of similar implements in use amongst all such people to whom
a common origin can be assigned.

In my last lecture I mentioned that there were three countries
in which the boomerang is either still used, or is known to have
been used in ancient times, viz. Australia, the Deccan of India,
and Egypt, and I also showed some grounds for believing that
the same weapon, or something allied to it, may have spread from
those countries over Europe, as it is known to have done over
a great part of Northern and Central Africa.

146 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [m

Although the comparison of weapons from various parts of the
globe can have no other object than to trace out an original con-
nexion, I did not venture to build upon the coincidence of this
weapon in these regions, any argument for the common origin of
the people by whom it was used. Nor do I think that I should
have been justified in assuming such origin upon the grounds of
the identity of a single weapon. Such identity may have arisen
in three ways : — (1) it may have arisen independently by the
spontaneous development of like weapons under similar con-
ditions of life ; (2) the weapon itself may have been com-
municated from some primal source; (3) the races using it
may have been themselves derived from a common origin. Of
these, the first view, viz. the independent origin of the weapon,
would perhaps strike any one at first sight, before having studied
the conservatism and persistency of type which is so especially
characteristic of savages, as the most probable; it appears so
exceedingly simple in its form and uses to our trained and
educated minds, that it seems hardly necessary to account for it
in any other way ; besides which, there are slight differences
between the Indian and Australian boomerangs, which have
been considered by some to distinguish the two weapons.

I will not here revert to the arguments which I have used to
combat this opinion. Suffice to say, that I have since been
favoured with much valuable information on the subject by Sir
Walter Elliot, who has frequently accompanied the natives of
India in their hunting expeditions with this weapon. He says
that it is formed on the grain of the wood, like the Australian
boomerang, the curve varying with the bend of the stem ; it is
whirled horizontally, with the end foremost, like the Australian
practice, and is used by two tribes in the Deccan, viz. the Kolis
of Guzerat and the Marawars of Madura, but more especially in
its simplest form by the former, who are of the Dravidian or
black race of the Deccan. In a letter to me he says, speaking of
these tribes : — ' I have seen both, and, indeed, served ten years
in the latter district (Southern Mahratta), where the crooked
stick is used by all the lower orders every Sunday during the hot
season, when all agricultural labour is at a stand. The villagers
turn out in large numbers, and scour the jungle armed with these
sticks. Everything that rises is knocked over ; deer, hares, birds,

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 147

even the wild hog and the tiger are occasionally (though rarely,
of course) included in the bag. I have seen a line of upwards of
100 men and boys, and the boomerang whirling about in such
numbers, and with such precision, that even birds on the wing
are brought down. I never met with any regularly formed
specimens, except in the South ; those in the North were mere
angular sticks, of very various form, as natural branches occurred ;
the favourite form was a rather obtuse angle — nearly a right angle/
Thus, whether we regard the purposes for which it is used, the
material of which it is constructed, the manner of throwing, or the
varieties of its form, the Indian and Australian boomerang is vir-
tually the same weapon ; and I think those who dispute their
identity appear rather to have had in view the ' collery stick ' of
Madras and of the Marawars than the boomerang of the Kolis.

We may therefore, I think, fairly consider the causes which
may have led to the adoption of this weapon as sprung from
a common source.

Since my last communication to this Institution, Professor
Huxley has given to the world, in a paper read at the meeting of
the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology — of which
I had the honour to be general secretary — in August, 1868, his
views ' on the distribution of the races of mankind, as bearing on
their antiquity \x The paper created a considerable sensation in the
scientific world, owing to the boldness of the generalizations con-
tained in it, and, it may be added, a certain amount of opposition.
The accompanying map (Plate XVII) is taken from one drawn by
Professor Huxley himself for the Ethnological Society, to illustrate
this subject (Journ. Ethw. Soc. (1870) N. S. ii. 404-12).

Basing his distribution of the human race on the principle
that the characters of the hair and complexion are more perma-
nent, and of greater value as a means of classification, than the
bony structure of man, Professor Huxley traces back the numerous
varieties of tribes and races into what, for the present, may be
regarded as four primary groups.

Commencing, for the convenience of my present subject, with

the highest, or those which have shown themselves most capable

of development — which, in all probability, is the wrong end of

the scale to begin with, if we regarded them in their natural

1 Trans. Int. Congr. Preh. Arch, at Norwich, 1868 (London, 1869), p. 92 ff.

L2

148 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

succession — the first of these groups is what he terms
Xanthochroid type (the distribution of which is marked
in the map), a people characterized by yellow hair and fair
complexions, with blue eyes, who form a strong element in the
composition of the population of this country and a great part of
Europe, extending from thence through Scandinavia and Central
Europe eastward into Northern India. Next to these he classes
the great Mongoloid race (marked by various shades of \^//\
on the map), with yellow-brown complexions and black hair and
eyes, of which the Kalmucs and Tartars represent the purest
types, occupying the whole of Northern Europe and Asia, from
Lapland to Behring Strait, and down to the southernmost parts
of China; including also the Esquimaux, the Polynesians, and
the whole of the inhabitants of the two continents of America.
Thirdly, the Negro race (marked {§§§•] and | | in the map),
long headed, with woolly hair, which has its head quarters in all
that part of Africa south of the Sahara, but has outlying branches
widely detached, and occupying a broken line of islands extending
in a belt, from the Andaman Isles in the Bay of Bengal, to the
peninsula of Malacca, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and the
adjoining isles, and having its southmost limits in the distant
island of Tasmania. Lastly, we come to the Australioid race
(marked fHHH ), distinguished by dark chocolate complexions
and black eyes, with long heads and soft wavy hair ; these the
Professor, upon physiological grounds, and after intimate ac-
quaintance with these people in the distant regions in which they
are found, traces in three distinct portions of the globe, viz.
Australia, the Deccan of India, and Egypt ; the three identical
countries, it will be observed, in which, unconscious of Professor
Huxley's distribution of races, I had traced the occurrence of the
boomerang. I think, therefore, it is not an unreasonable con-
jecture, assuming the correctness of Professor Huxley's premises,
that this peculiar weapon may be a relic of the original Austra-
lioid stock, which having been originally an effective weapon for
all purposes amongst the aborigines of this race, and continuing
still to be used as such in Australia, survived in India and in
ancient Egypt merely as an implement for the chase and for
amusement, much in the same way that, in Europe, bows and
arrows have survived amongst children to the present day.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 149

In the remarks which I made (p. 127) upon the varieties o£ the
African boomerang-, I drew attention to the peculiarly curved form
of the Nubian and Abyssinian sword, and I ventured an opinion
that its form may have been originally derived from that of the
boomerang", of which weapon a variety, constructed of wood, is
still in use by the inhabitants of the country; and I see no
reason to doubt that the Abyssinian sword may have been the
prototype of those numerous allied forms of iron weapons, the
' hunga-munga ' , &c, which throughout Africa are still used as
missiles, and thrown with a rotatory motion like the boomerang.
My conjecture on this subject appears to receive some confirma-
tion from the very peculiar construction of one of these swords,
which has lately been added to the museum of this Institution,
and which is represented in Plate XIX, figure 1. The angular
form of the blade, swelling in the middle, presents such a close
affinity to the Australian boomerang, as to strike even those
who have not been led, by the considerations I have mentioned,
to look for a coincidence in these weapons. I noticed at the
same time the very great resemblance between the rudimentary
shields of the Australians and those of some of the inhabitants
of the valley of the Upper Nile, which may also perhaps be
accounted for in the same way. With a view of further con-
necting this primitive, form of shield with similar defensive
weapons in India, it is worthy of notice that the hand-shield,
having antelopes' horns projecting from it, a representation of
which was given in my first lecture, Plate X, figs. 66, 67a,
and 69 (many of which are furnished with a small iron shield,
or guard for the hand, though some are without this accessory),
is used — Sir Walter Elliot now informs me — precisely in the same
way as the Australian and African parrying-shields, viz. by
catching the arrows and darts of the assailant, and parrying
them off with the horns, thus favouring the conjecture that
I ventured to put forward, that the square, oblong, and circular
targets are defensive weapons of comparatively recent origin,
being represented in a primitive stage of culture by a simple
parryingTstick, derived originally from the club. The club is,
as a general rule, the only defensive guard employed by races in
the lowest stages of culture. These seem to have been replaced
by parrying-sticks, held in the centre, and subsequently hollowed

150 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

to receive the hand, or furnished with hand-guards, forming
rudimentary shields ; of which stage in the development of the
weapon we are now able to establish connected traces in the
three countries under consideration.

If the comparisons which I have made, and the conclusions
I have ventured to draw from them, are found to stand the test
of further investigation, as it appears to me reasonable to hope
they will, the importance of studying the forms and uses of
these primitive weapons in connexion with other sociological
and biological phenomena, as a means of tracing back the early
history of mankind, will be well established. Of this, however,
we may feel certain, that if a connexion formerly existed be-
tween the inhabitants of India, Australia, and Egypt, the
evidence of such connexion will not be limited either to the
colour of the hair and skin, or to the resemblance of their
weapons, but will be found in other customs and institutions
which they brought with them from their fatherland. The
important generalizations of Professor Huxley, whether or not
they ultimately hold good, have had the good effect of drawing
attention to a comparison of the inhabitants of these countries ;
and though it would be foreign to my present purpose to antici-
pate the result of these investigations in other branches not
immediately connected with my present subject, I may mention
that officers acquainted with India and Australia have since
pointed out resemblances in the hymeneal and other customs
of those countries, which have not before been noticed, but
which, when put together and compared, making all due allow-
ance for the variations which are inevitable in the continuous
development of all human arts and institutions, will, I doubt not,
tend to give confirmation to the theory of races which the author
of it has so ably advanced.

Having strayed thus far into the geological and biological
aspect of the question, it is necessary to go a step further in
order to apply the subject more generally to the origin of
weapons, and at the same time to point out some difficulties
which stand in the way of accepting this theory of races —
difficulties of which Professor Huxley himself appears by his
paper to be fully sensible.

The detached portions of the Australioid race are separated

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 151

from each other by seas o£ considerable depth, and the same
thing- applies to the Negroid race. The Australians, he points out,
though possessing ample materials for the construction of canoes,
have never learnt to make any that are capable of traversing
the great seas which separate them from their apparent kindred
in other lands, and it is unlikely they should have forgotten the
art of navigation if they had once known it. It is inconceivable,
therefore, that they should have migrated from Australia to the
Deccan, and to Egypt, during the existing geographical arrange-
ment of sea and land, more especially as no trace of such migra-
tion is found upon intervening isles. He points out, however,
that great geographical changes have probably taken place, and
that those changes, in so far as our knowledge of them goes,
are of a nature to account for the phenomena observed.

The region of the negro race in Africa is separated from
Northern Africa and from Europe by the desert of Sahara, of
which there is geological evidence to show that it was sea
at a recent geological period. The same applies to the Deccan
of India, which is separated from the Himalaya by the great
alluvial plains of the Indus and the Ganges, which, having
probably formed a strait before the miocene epoch, may have
divided the black men inhabiting the Deccan from the
Xanthochroid and Mongoloid races to the north. At the same
time large tracts now occupied by the sea may then have
been land, uniting or connecting by a chain of easily accessible
islands the regions in which men of the same colour and
physical peculiarities are now found. But it will be seen by
the map that the lines of distribution of two of the races, the
Negroid and the Australioid, cross each other, and this, accord-
ing to the theory of migration by land, appears to involve
a succession of submersions and upheavals during the human
period, which it is difficult to account for.

The distribution of races, according to supposed original
distinctions of colour and complexion, will be seized upon by
polygenists as an argument in their favour ; for it will be said
that, according to this theory, the distinctions of race in the
earliest times must have been as great, or greater, than they
are at present.

There are three ways in which it has been attempted to

152 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

account for these early distinctions of colour and persistency of:
type — (1) by supposing the several races of man to have been
separately created upon distinct continents of land ; (2) by
assuming that on each primaeval continent, man was evolved
from the anthropoid apes of that continent ; 1 or (3), by suppos-
ing that these divisions of race, remotely and immeasurably
distant though they be, nevertheless carry us only a short way
back into the history of man, and that still earlier ages, if we
could penetrate them, would show the races of man united.

Now, with respect to the first assumption, that of creation,
though we are not, of course, in a position to deny the possibility
of it, I confess it appears to me unwarranted by any of the
phenomena of nature. We have no knowledge of the special
creation of any organized being ; and how can we scientifically
assume as probable, that, for the probability of which there is
no sort of evidence of a nature that inductive science would be
warranted in building upon ? Continuity and development are
seen to be the order of the universe. Man is seen to be, both
mentally and physically, amenable to that law ; and on what
grounds can we assume that he was ever an exception to it?
I cannot conceive how those who believe geological changes to
have been brought about by causes which are still in operation
in our own day, and who make great calls upon time in order
to reconcile those causes to the phenomena observed, can, in
treating biological phenomena, advocate belief in so great
a break in the observed order of the universe as is implied by
the special creation of man. Still less willing am I, in the
absence of more cogent argument than has ever yet been
advanced in support of it, to assent to hypotheses of the separate
development of races, which appears to me equally at variance
with nature. There can be no doubt that all the existing races
of man, whatever their colour and physical peculiarities, have
greater affinity to each other than any of them have to the
apes, or to any other class of animals. The tendency of progress
is from simplicity to complexity, from unity to diversity, and it
would be a complete inversion of the order of nature that
animals so various as the apes should independently produce

1 Lectures on Man, his Place in Creation, and in the History of the Earth, by
Dr. Carl Vogt. Edited by James Hunt, Ph.D. (London, 1864), p. 466 ff.

m] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 153

animals so much resembling each other as the races of man.
The recognized law that, with certain variations, like begets
like, appears to me to negative this assumption as fully as it
would do the notion, if it were put forward, that because the
horse and some other classes of the mammalia, say the rhinoceros,
for instance, have some affinities in their bony structure, there-
fore the black horse is descended from the African rhinoceros,
and the white horse from that of India. Moreover, all the
races of mankind interbreed, and I am at a loss to understand
how a circumstance like this, which throughout the animal
kingdom is regarded as a proof of unity of species, should be
discarded in its application to humanity. If, then, it is true
that diversity of colour is as old as the very earliest traces of
man, and there is evidence that the several coloured races were
inhabitants of distinct continents, which have disappeared
through geological chaDges dispersing and mixing the races,
blending the colours and obliterating the traces of their formerly
isolated homes; then to the same causes, which produced the
mixing and the blending, we must also attribute the original
separation. According to the view I hold, we must ask for
more time, and still further geological changes, to bring them
together again in the primaeval cradle of the human race.

Now, to apply this reasoning to the origin of weapons. The
only vestiges of the primaeval tools of mankind now left to us
are those constructed of stone; others of the more perishable
materials have decayed, and their representatives only have
remained in some few cases as survivals. In my last lecture
I showed how uniform in shape and in development these stone
implements are found to be in all parts of the world, whether
derived from the northern or southern continent of America,
from Siberia, Australia, India, Africa, or the surface soils and
river gravels of Europe. This uniformity of shape has been
used as an argument that mankind must have independently
designed the same forms of tools in various parts of the world,
and that under like conditions, like forms will be produced by
men, however remotely separated. I am not prepared to deny
the possibility of some of these forms having had an independent
origin ; but if the proof of it is to be based upon the separation
of continents, we see how entirely groundless such an argument

154 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

is when applied to the earliest ages of humanity. For if, as
has been conjectured, the races of man may have been dispersed
by geographical changes of land and sea, it is obvious they may
have carried with them, from some primal source, the art of
manufacturing stone weapons; the resemblance of which is
far more satisfactorily accounted for by this means1 than by
supposing such singular and invariable coincidence in design
to be the result of independent discovery. As we contemplate
man in his lower and lowest conditions, we find the imitative
faculty stands out more and more prominently by the absence
of those higher qualities which characterize civilized races ; and
whatever power of originality for the invention of new arts
may have been possessed by the earliest inhabitants of the
globe, its results appear to have been spread over so vast a
lapse of time that it can scarcely be accounted at all as an
element in the mental attributes of primaeval man.

I now pass to what has been announced as the subject proper
of my present communication, viz. the origin and development
of metal tools. I use the word metal intentionally, in preference
to specifying bronze, because, although we have good reason for
supposing that in Europe, Egypt, Assyria, and the central parts
of America, bronze preceded iron as a material for weapons, it
is not so certain that this was the case in all parts of Asia;
and in Africa we know that iron was the first metal employed
by the negroes.

Perhaps no subject has given rise to so much difference of
opinion amongst archaeologists as this question of the origin
of metal implements, or has been accompanied with such
uncertain results, owing to the great mass of conflicting
evidence to be dealt with, and the great doubt which rests
upon much of it, whether in regard to the casual mention of
the subject in ancient authors, or to the often ill-directed

1 The fact mentioned both by the Baron de Bonstetten and Dr. Keller, of
celts of jade and nephrite having been found in Switzerland, materials
which, according to the latest investigations [1869], are not found in the
Alps, but must have been imported from the East, proves that inter-
communication and barter must have been carried on between distant
countries at the time when such weapons were used. — Baron de Bonstetten,
Recueil d'Antiquites Suisses (Berne, 1855), p. 12 ; Keller, The Lake Dwellings of
Switzerland (1866), pp. 56, 68 (cf. 1878, pp. 72, 195, 205, 215).

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 155

researches of modern times. It would be hopeless, in the brief
time allotted me on the present occasion, to attempt to throw
fresh light on this intricate subject, even if I possessed the
materials for so doing. All I shall endeavour to do is, to put
together, in as intelligible a form as possible, some of the more
salient points upon which archaeologists are divided, and trace the
continuity observable in passing from the stone to the metal age.

We have already seen, in speaking of the implements of the
stone age, a gradual improvement in form and fabrication,
developing itself in proportion as the wild animals which were
contemporaneous with the first traces of man in Europe became
extinct, partly, no doubt, through the efforts of man himself in
exterminating them, and partly, as there seems reason to suppose,
owing to an alteration of temperature, rendering the climate
unsuited to the constitution and habits of those animals, which
therefore migrated by degrees, and the majority of which are
now found chiefly, though not exclusively, in arctic regions.
Thither they have been accompanied by races of men whose
arts and implements show them to be very nearly in a corre-
sponding stage of civilization to the early races, the relics of
which are found associated with the same animals in Europe.
The simultaneous migration of races of men in the hunting
stage of civilization, with the animals, the pursuit of which
forms the almost sole occupation of their lives, is well
shown in the case of the North American Indians, whose
geographical distribution is now almost identical with that of
the buffalo. This forms a strong point in the arguments of
those who are disposed to attribute all the changes in the
world's civilization to the influx and extermination of antagonistic
races. But it must be remembered that progress advances in
an increasing ratio, and the phenomenon now seen in America
and Australia of a highly civilized race constantly fed by steam-
communication from the Old World, driving before it and
rapidly exterminating other races so vastly its inferior as the
Australians and American Indians, is one which could have had
no parallel at the early period of which I am now speaking.
We must here look for a slower process, though doubtless the
operating causes may, to a great extent, have been the same.

The fabrication of stone implements would of itself lead by

156 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

degrees to a knowledge of the metals which are contained in
stones. Thus, for example, I have here a specimen of a stone
mace-head from Central America, figure 2, Plate XIX, com-
posed of a nodule of haematite partially coated with micaceous
iron ore, the particles of which are distinctly visible on its
glittering surface. The weight of this implement, being nearly
double that of a mace-head composed of ordinary stone, would
at once attract the notice of the savage fabricator, and lead him
to investigate the uses of metal.

But, as a general rule, races engaged exclusively in hunting,
who rarely turn their attention to the ground except to examine
a trail or to search for water, would have little opportunity
of profiting by the mineral wealth of the soil over which they
roamed. Witness the Australians, who have continued for ages
in ignorance of the gold and other mines which are now so
attractive to Europeans; or the North and South American
Indians, and the Esquimaux, amongst whom the art of smelting
metal has never been found associated with those races who are
in a purely hunting stage of existence; the wrought metals
used by such races to point their weapons being invariably
derived from civilized sources.

From hunting wild animals, the savage, in the natural sequence
of progress, would turn his attention to their capture and domesti-
cation, and thus he creeps gradually into the pastoral life ; and
as the bones of animals under domestication, through want of
exercise and good living, become smoother and of finer texture,
the experienced anatomist is thereby afforded the means of dis-
tinguishing, amongst the vestiges of antiquity, the remains of
domesticated animals from those derived from the chase, and
of observing to what extent the domestication of animals was
contemporaneous with other changes in the social condition of
the people.1 Still, however, in the pastoral state, the barbarian
is not necessarily brought in contact with metals ; and hence we
should expect in many cases to find the traces of domesticated
animals associated with people who are still in the stone age.
This was notably the case amongst the ancient inhabitants of
the Swiss lakes, where the sheep and horse have been found
at Moosseedorf, and other lake habitations which are proved to
1 Prehistoric Times, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., London (1865), p. 147.

m] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 157

belong to the stone age, though not in such abundance as in
the settlements belonging to the bronze age.1

From the pastoral life, the barbarian, hampered by his flocks
and herds, and no longer obliged to wander in search of food,
settles down to a more stationary life, and by degrees takes to
agriculture. Then, for the first time, he digs into the soil, and
becomes acquainted with its mineral treasures. It has been
proved by the discovery of quantities of carbonized grains of
wheat, lumped together, in the Swiss lake-habitations of the
stone age, together with the materials for preparing it for food,
that a knowledge of agriculture preceded the general employ-
ment of bronze in that region,2 whilst in Britain, and in Denmark
also, bronze is almost invariably associated with evidence of
domestication and agriculture.

The metals first employed would be those that are most
attractive. Copper, in Europe, from the bright colour of its ores,
would be noticed more readily than iron, which is often scarcely
distinguishable from the soil, and requires greater temperature
and more skilled labour to render it available than could be
expected of a people emerging out of the savage state. It is
not, therefore, surprising that in Europe, copper first, and
subsequently its alloy, bronze, should have been employed before
iron as a material for weapons. But in those countries where
iron is found upon the surface in an attractive form, and in
a condition to be easily wrought, we must for the same reason
suppose that it would be used instead of copper in the earliest
ages of metallurgy.

It is natural to suppose that, in the ordinary course of
development, an age of pure copper must have intervened
between the ages of stone and bronze. But implements of pure
copper are comparatively rare, bronze being the metal almost
invariably found following immediately upon the age of stone.3
Notwithstanding the comparative rarity of copper tools, however,
there is reason to believe that this metal was used in a pure

1 Prehistoric Times, by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S. (1865), pp. 142-3 ;
Results of the Investigation of Animal Remains from the Lake Dwellings, by Prof.
Rutimeyer ; in The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, by Dr. Ferdinand Keller,
translated by J. E. Lee, F.S.A., F.G.S., 1866, pp. 355-62 (1878, pp. 537-44).

2 Moosseedorf, Keller, 1. c, p. 35 ; Robenhausen, Keller, 1. c, p. 40.

3 (The first two sentences of this paragraph have been transposed, for
clearness. — Ed.)

158 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [m

state before the discovery of the alloy. According- to Professor
Max Miiller, copper was the metal spoken of by Hesiod and
Homer as the material generally employed for weapons in their
time.1 Mr. Rawlinson, in his Five Ancient Monarchies, says
that the metallurgy of the early Chaldeans was of a very rude
character, indicating a nation but just emerging from an almost
barbaric simplicity, and that copper often occurs pure.2 Copper
implements, of a very early form, beaten into shape, occur not
unfrequently in Ireland, as may be seen by specimens represented
in Class A, Plate XVIII. They have also been found in
Mecklenburg and in Denmark, and Klemm3 says that they
occur in Greece, Italy, Spain, Egypt, and Hindustan. At
Maurach, in Switzerland, a copper celt was found in a lake
dwelling, which Dr. Keller, notwithstanding this circumstance,
attributes to the stone age.4 In the lake dwelling of Pescheira,
on the lake of Garda, several copper implements were discovered,6
and in certain localities in Hungary copper implements are said
to be as plentiful as those of bronze.6 An axe of pure copper
was discovered in Ratho Bog, near Edinburgh, under 20 feet
of stratified sand and clay, and Dr. Wilson mentions that others
have been found in Scotland.7 Copper implements occur in
Peru, to prove that, in the central parts of America also, the
manufacture of bronze was preceded by the use of copper in
a pure state; and in the ancient mines of Lake Superior we
have distinct evidence of a stage of early metallurgy in which
copper was used simply as a malleable stone, and beaten out into
the form of implements without the aid of any alloy or a know-
ledge of the process of casting.8 (See Plate XIX, figures
3, 4, 5, and 6.) When it is considered that without the
admixture of a small portion of alloy of zinc or tin, copper is

1 Max Miiller, Science of Language, second series (London, 1864), p. 230.

2 Kawlinson, Tlie Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World (1864),
vol. i. p. 123.

3 Klemm, Werkseuge und Waffen (Sondershausen, 1858), p. 96.

4 Keller, 1. c, p. 116 : (1878, p. 121).

5 Keller, 1. c, p. 221, pi. lxvii : (1878, p. 362, pi. cxix).

6 Keller, 1. c, pp. 218, 219, pi. lxviii : (1878, pp. 362-3, pi. cxx. 1-28).

7 Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 282.

8 Wilson, Prehistoric Man, vol. i. pp. 231-79 ; Squier and Davis in Smith-
sonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. i. pp. 196-203, figs. 81, 82, 84, 87.4, 87.1,
from which work the illustrations are taken.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 159

very difficult to melt, and can only be used by a laborious process
of beating into form, and also what a great superiority bronze
has over copper as a cutting material, whilst at the same time
the process of fabrication is actually in some degree facilitated by
the addition of tin, it is not surprising that on the first discovery
of the advantages of this mixture, all the old implements of
copper, wherever procurable, should have been taken to the melt-
ing-pot for conversion into bronze, and we should thus be left with
such scanty evidence of the existence of an age of copper.

Up to this point we meet with no difficulty in supposing that
the use of metal may have been at first adopted by many nations
independently, without intercourse one with another. But when
we find in both hemispheres of the globe a very wide diffusion of
weapons of bronze, consisting of a mixture of the same metals,
which, though varying slightly in its proportions, as we shall
afterwards see, is nevertheless, for the most part, constant in its
adherence to a standard of about nine parts copper to one of tin
in all parts of the world, the question arises whether the know-
ledge of this mixed metal could have been arrived at independently
in different countries, or whether it must have been diffused all
over the universe from a common source. It is true that copper
and tin materials are sometimes found in the same locality, as,
for instance, in Cornwall, the locality which, from the remotest
time up to the present, has afforded the most plentiful supply of
both metals perhaps in the world. We have evidence, also, that
in ancient copper mines fire was employed by the miners for
softening the metal and detaching it from the matrix,1 and it is,
therefore, highly probable that the admixture of the two metals
occurring so close together, and a knowledge of the advantages
accruing therefrom, may have been brought about accidentally
in the process of mining.2 But this connexion of the metals in

1 Wilson, Prehistoric Man, vol. i. p. 253.

2 Since the above was written, Sir John Lubbock has published in an
Appendix to his second edition of Prehistoric Times (1869), p. 595, letters from
Dr. Percy, and from Messrs. Jenkin andLefeaux, highly experienced assayers,
expressing their opinions upon the theory of M. Wibel, that the ancient bronze
was obtained, not by the fusion of copper and tin, but directly from ore con-
taining the two metals. They are unanimously of opinion that this could not
have been the case, none of the ores containing naturally a mixture of the
metals in proper proportions. Although the opinions of these gentlemen
appear decisively to negative the possibility of ancient bronze having been

160 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

a state of nature is not common, and in those countries, such as
Denmark and Scandinavia, where bronze implements occur, and
in which neither metal is found native, it is most improbable
that the inhabitants should have discovered the merits of these
particular ingredients, unless they had derived the knowledge of
them from without.

Hence we find archaeologists as much divided in their opinions
upon what I may call the monogenesis or polygenesis of bronze,
as biologists and anatomists are upon the monogenesis or poly-
genesis of the human race. The same question repeats itself
again and again in dealing with the vestiges of the early history
of man, and we may therefore divide the consideration of this
question of the origin of bronze under pretty nearly the same
heads to which I have adverted when speaking of the distribution
of races, and of the age of stone (pp. 147-54). The questions to
be considered may be numbered as follows : — (1) that bronze was
spread from a common centre by an intruding and conquering race,
or by the migration of tribes ; (2) that the inhabitants of each
separate region in which bronze is known to have been used dis-
covered the art independently, and made their implements of it ;
(3) that the art was discovered, and the implements fabri-
cated, on one spot, and the implements disseminated from that
place by means of commerce ; (4) that the art of making
bronze was diffused from a common centre, but that the imple-
ments were constructed in the countries in which they are found.

Amongst the advocates for the first hypothesis, viz. intro-
duction by the intrusion of fresh races, are to be found chiefly the
Scandinavian archaeologists, amongst whom may be especially
mentioned Professors Worsaae, of Copenhagen 1, and Nilsson, of
Stockholm. Both metals are foreign to the soil of Denmark, and
must, therefore, have been imported. In the graves, bronze
weapons are in Denmark invariably found with burials by crema-
tion, while those of the stone age are by inhumation, the former
being recognized, in an early stage of civilization, as a later pro-
cess than burial by inhumation. Bronze is here markedly

habitually produced for commercial purposes in this manner, they do not
appear to me to discredit the supposition that the first imperfect knowledge
of the mixture may have been brought about accidentally in the manner
I have described.

1 Worsaae, Tlie Primeval Antiquities of Denmark (London, 1849), pp. 24, 40-45.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 161

associated with traces of agriculture, the evidence of which is
wanting- in the stone age. The age of bronze, it is asserted by
these antiquaries, was ushered in in Denmark by the employment
of implements showing the highest perfection of art, and at a later
period, when they are associated with weapons of iron, they are
inferior in the quality of their workmanship. The weapons of
bronze have remarkably small handles, denoting a smaller race,
and hypothetically an eastern origin, small handles being to this
day the characteristic of weapons from India. Some of the
bronze spear-heads in Denmark have been found with nails driven
into them, a practice which still exists in India, each nail denoting'
a victim ; and in the Asiatic islands the custom of boring a hole in
the weapon for each victim is found to the present time.1 The
peculiar ornamentation so often found on the bronze swords of
Denmark, known as the spiral ornament, is said, though I think
erroneously, to be of Phoenician origin. To these and other
arguments for the introduction by intruding races, Professor
Nilsson adds, that in the countries of the north, where bronze
implements are found in greatest abundance, the graves in which
they occur are usually situated in groups, proving that bronze was
introduced, not by isolated individuals, merchants, or travellers,
but by tribes or colonies more or less numerous, occupying especial
tracts of country.

The theory of race-origin is also not without its adherents in
this country. Dr. Thurnam, who has excavated a large number
of barrows in the south of England, divides them — as, indeed,
they have been divided by former antiquaries — into several
classes, amongst which we may chiefly distinguish two principal
types, viz. the long and the round barrows. The former he
attributes to the stone age, containing usually implements of
that material, whilst implements of bronze are almost invariably
found in the round barrows. He also gives it as the result of
his researches, extending over some years of exploration — and
Canon Green well, in so far as his experience of long barrows in
the north of England goes, confirms the statement — that the
long barrows are generally associated with dolichocephalic, or
long skulls, whilst in the round barrows brachycephalie, or round

1 The custom of making a mark upon the weapon for each victim slain, is
one of very usual occurrence among savage people.
p.r. M

162 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

skulls, are found, thus leading to the supposition that the long-
headed people o£ the stone age who erected the long barrows may
have been succeeded by another race with round heads importing
bronze, and burying their dead in round barrows. But after
having heard Dr. Thurnam' s last papers on this subject, read
before the Society of x^ntiquaries and other societies l, I confess,
although he has no doubt established a sequence, that he does
not appear to me to have determined a clear line of separation
between the two classes of interments ; the long barrows pass by
intermediate links into the round ones, and the long skull,
although no doubt it may be considered characteristic of an
earlier period, and therefore connected with an earlier form of
barrow, also passes by gradations into the round skull, the
variations of form being considerable. Then, with respect to
the implements, although the absence of bronze in the long
barrows of the earlier period appears to be determined, yet it is
notorious to all those who have paid attention to the subject —
and is not by any means denied by the learned antiquaries whose
names I have mentioned — that the transition from stone to
bronze in this country was gradual, and extended over a long
period, flint weapons being found in nearly all the barrows of the
bronze age in such positions as to show they were used con-
temporaneously by the same people ; and from discoveries which
have been made both by myself and others 2, there seems good
reason to suppose that flint weapons continued to be used by
some of the inhabitants of this country even during the Roman
era. This distinction of long heads in long barrows, and round
heads in round barrows, is one so easily remembered, that it is
liable on this account, perhaps, to receive greater attention than
it really deserves as a criterion of race. The difficulty of dis-
tinguishing in all cases the primary from the secondary inter-
ments in the barrows — it being an established fact that these
barrows were used as places of burial by successive generations,

1 Thurnam, Ancient British Barrows (1869), pp. 168, 198 ; Archaeologia,
vol. xlii ; ' On the Two Principal Forms of Ancient British and Gaulish
Skulls,' Mem. Anihrop. Soc. Lond., i. 120 ff., 459 ff. (1865) ; iii. 41 ff. (1870) ;
Davis and Thurnam, Crania Britannica (London, 1865).

2 ' On some Flint Implements found associated with Roman Remains in
Oxfordshire and the Isle of Thanet,' by Col. A. Lane Fox, Journal, of the
Ethnological Society (1869), N.S. , vol. i. p. 1 ff.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 163

and even perhaps by successive races, including- also the Anglo-
Saxons — the possible distortion of some of the crania by time
and pressure, and the other facts of the case, as I believe I have
correctly stated them, are, I think, sufficient to justify us in
withholding for the present our entire acceptance of the theory
of the introduction of bronze into this country by intruding races,
as drawn from any evidence derived from the graves.

From amongst those who have advocated the totally indepen-
dent origin of bronze, the opinion of Professor Daniel Wilson
may be selected, as affording a most ingenious argument derived
from an analysis of the metals.1 He quotes some experiments
conducted by Dr. George Pearson, and communicated by him to
the Royal Society of London in 1796, to ascertain the results of
various proportions of the ingredients of tin and copper in bronze.
' Having fused these metals in various united proportions, com-
mencing with 1 part of tin to 20 parts of copper, which
produced a dark-coloured bronze, he reduced the proportion
gradually to 15 parts of copper to 1 of tin, when the colour was
materially affected, and the red copper hue was tno longer seen,
but an alloy of greater strength was produced. The experiments
were continued with 12, 10, 9, 8, and 7 parts of copper to 1 of
tin, and when the last fusion of the metals was tested, increased
hardness and brittleness of the metals became very apparent.
The same characteristics were still more marked on successively
reducing the proportions of copper to 6, 5, 4, and 3 ; and when
alloy was made of 2 parts of copper to 1 of tin, it was, according
to Dr. Pearson's report, as brittle as glass/

From the result of these experiments we see that the best
average proportions, of about 9 parts of copper to 1 of tin, would
invariably show itself by a practical experience in the use of these
ingredients, and it is therefore unnecessary to assume that these
particular proportions, when found in the bronzes of different
countries, must necessarily have been communicated.

Dr. Wilson then proceeds to give the results of analyses of
ancient bronzes discovered in Europe, America, and elsewhere,
contained in the accompanying tables. And he concludes his
observations on the subject as follows : —

' From the varied results which so many independent analyses

1 Prehistoric Man, by Daniel Wilson, LL.D. (London, 1869), vol. i. p. 308.

M 3

164

PRIMITIVE WARFARE

[m

disclose, varying, as they do, from 79 to 94 per cent, of copper,
or more than the total amount of the supposed constant ratio of
tin, besides the variations in the nature, as well as the quantity
of their ingredients ' (a proportion of lead will be seen in some of
the analyses of European bronzes, the small proportion of iron
being probably accidental), c it is abundantly obvious that no
greater uniformity is traceable than such as might be expected to
result from the experience of isolated and independent metal-
lurgists, very partially acquainted with the chemical properties
of the standard alloy, and guided for the most part by practical
experience derived from successive results of their manufacture/
The comparison of the two tables here given, from Professor
Wilson's work, also shows a smaller average amount of tin in
the American bronze (Table I) than in that of ancient Europe
(Table II).

Table I. — -Analyses of Ancient American Bronzes

Object.

Locality.

Observer.

Copper.

Tin.

Iron.

1 Chisel from Silver Mines

2 Chisel „ „

3 Knife „

4 Knife

Cuzco
Cuzco
Atacama

Humboldt . .
Dr. J. H. Gibbon
J. H. Blake, Esq.

Ditto
Dr. T. C. Jackson
Dr. H. Croft . .

Ditto
T. Ewbank, Esq.

Ditto

94.0

92-385

97-870

96-0

92-385

95.664

96.0

95-440

96.70

6-0

7-615

2-130

4-0

7-615

3-965

4-0

4-560

330

6 Knife

7 Perforated Axe . . .

8 Personal Ornament . .

9 Bodkin from Female

Chili. .
Amaro .

Truigilla

0.371

This argument, however, is defective when taken to determine
the question of the origin of bronze in favour of independent
discovery, for we have already seen, in speaking of the stone
age, — and I have endeavoured to show that it is a peculiarity
observable in the works of all savage and barbarous races, — that
being devoid of rule or measure, and having very imperfect
means of securing adherence to a uniform standard, their
productions are characterized by incessant variations, even in
cases where the first idea is known to have been derived from
a common source. The variations here shown to exist in the
composition of bronze are no greater than are capable of being
accounted for by the universal prevalence of a law of variation,

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PRIMITIVE WARFARE

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resulting from many causes, and amongst others from want of
precision, and carelessness, which is a defect common alike to
all tyros in their art, whether ancient or modern. It is a fault
we have many of us to complain of almost daily in our cooks.
A batter pudding is composed of milk, flour, and eggs, in proper
proportions, but a careless cook will constantly vary her pro-
portions, and will fail in adjusting her quantities to the total
amount ; but we must not, on that account, assume that each
cook has invented the art of making batter puddings in-
dependently. So, in like manner, it is quite consistent with
the facts observed even in America, to suppose that the first
knowledge of bronze, and of those many features in the
civilization of the Mexicans and Peruvians which present such
striking analogies to the civilization of Egypt, may have been
originally communicated by some casual wanderer or some
shipwrecked castaway from the then centres of Eastern culture
(for the theory of geographical changes is, of course, out of the
question when speaking of the origin of bronze), and that they
have varied in their development on American soil no more than
might naturally be expected from their introduction to an
entirely new and partially civilized race. Such an assumption,
though difficult to account for, and wanting in evidence, is more
in accordance with the well-known traditions of the Mexicans
and Peruvians, who attribute their civilization to the advent
of a god; or with that of the natives of Nootka Sound, on the
north-west, who state that an old man entered the bay, in
a copper canoe, with paddles of copper, and that the Nootkans
by that means acquired a knowledge of that metal.

As illustrations of the modern metal-work of the natives of
Nootka Sound and its neighbourhood, several examples are
given in Plate XIX, figs. 7 to 11. Figures 7 and 8 represent
two sides of an iron dagger in the Museum of the Royal United
Service Institution. The ornamentation on the handle is that
of the natives of the country, but the workmanship of the
blade, which is ribbed on one side, appears to indicate foreign
manufacture. Figures 9 and 10 are two sides of a copper dagger
of the same form ; this specimen is now in the Belfast Museum,
in which it was deposited in the year 1843 by Mr. A. Thompson,
who brought it from the north-west coast of America, and

m] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 167

described it as having been fabricated by the Flathead Indians ;
it is undoubtedly of native workmanship j in both these weapons
one side of the blade and handle is concave, the other convex,
a form which appears to denote that it was originally taken
from some similar weapon of bone or cane. The nearest
approach to the form of this weapon in bone, that I am aware
of, is that of the Indian ' kandjar ', a figure of which was
given in my first lecture on Primitive Warfare, Plate X,
fig. 63. This weapon has also one concave and one convex
side, derived from the natural curvature of the bone out
of which it is made.

But putting aside American civilization, which, it must be
admitted, does in the existing state of our knowledge present
great difficulties in the way of those who advocate the theory of
a common origin for bronze, and turning our attention to the
eastern hemisphere, we find the evidence on this point more
satisfactory. We may observe, in the first place, that the area
over which bronze has been used for implements appears, in so
far as we have at present been able to trace it, to be continuous,
extending over the greater part of Europe, Egypt, Assyria, and
some parts of Siberia, India, and China, from which latter
country some few bronze weapons have lately been added to the
British Museum. Mr. Theobald, of the Geological Survey of
India, also mentions in a paper read to the Bengal Asiatic
Society,1 that bronze axes are found in the valley of the
Irrawaddy, where they are held in such veneration as rarely to be
procurable ; and Sir Walter Elliot has shown me some bronze
implements which he found deep beneath the soil in cutting
a canal in the valley of the Ganges. Bronze is wanting in
Africa; in America, with the exception of Peru and Mexico;
in the north of Sweden and Norway, and, I believe, in the
greater part of the northern districts of Russia and Siberia,
though with regard to Russian and Siberian bronzes, our
information is still very deficient. And here I may observe
that I speak only of bronze as applied to tools and weapons;
its use for other purposes may have been introduced at any
subsequent period of the world's history ; but the presence of

1 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1865, p. 126.

168 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [m

a bronze weapon implies either total ignorance, or at least an
imperfect knowledge of the means of hardening the more useful
metal for this purpose, iron.

Those who wish for more detailed information as to the
evidence upon which the succession of the stone, bronze, and
iron ages has been determined, would do well to refer to
Sir John Lubbock's remarks upon this subject in Prehistoric
Times. It may, however, be useful to enumerate briefly some
of the chief points which have been adduced in support of the
opinion that the employment of these materials corresponds to
successive stages in the development of civilization in Europe.
(1) Not only do the Roman writers mention iron as being the
metal used by them in their time, but they also speak of its
employment by the barbarian nations of the north, with whom
they came in contact, and the word c ferrum ', iron, was with the
Romans synonymous with sword. (2) Although numerous finds
of iron implements of the Roman period have been discovered in
various parts of the world, there has been no authentic and
undoubted instance of a weapon of bronze having been found
associated with them, or with Roman pottery or coins. (3)
Bronze implements are most abundant in Denmark and Ireland,
countries which were never invaded by Roman armies, whilst
they are exceedingly rare in Italy. (4) The ornamentation of
the bronze implements is not Roman, but pre-Roman in character.
(5) On the other hand, the numerous finds of bronze weapons
which have been discovered have never been associated with iron,
except in cases where the nature of the iron implements shows
them to have belonged to a period of transition. (6) The pottery
associated with bronze-finds is superior to that found with stone
implements, but inferior to that of the iron age, and the potter's
wheel was unknown during the stone and bronze ages. (7)
Silver is found associated with iron, but rarely if ever with
stone or bronze. (8) No coins or inscriptions of any kind have
been found with bronze implements. (9) In the Swiss lakes,
settlements associated with stone and bronze have been found
near each other, as for instance Moosseedorf and Nidau, 15
miles apart ; in the former, bronze is entirely absent ; in the
latter, it was used not only for articles of luxury, such as might
denote a more wealthy class, but also for implements of common

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 169

use, such as fish-hooks, pins, &c. ; it is improbable that so
marked a contrast in the civilization of two settlements so close
to each other should have existed during- the same period.
(10) The implements and ornaments of the bronze-finds are
more varied in form, showing an advance in art upon those
appertaining to the stone age. (11) The bronze-finds are marked
by an increase in the number of domesticated animals, and an
entire absence of some of the wild animals of the earlier period,
and they are also more clearly associated with traces of
agriculture. (12) In the Danish peat bogs, successive strata
are found overlying each other., denoting changes in the vegeta-
tion of the country ; in the lowest and earliest are found the
remains of pine trees, which now are foreign to the soil ; above
which are strata in which oak was the prevailing tree, and at
the present time the oaks have been superseded by beeches.
These successive strata correspond in a general way to successive
stages in the civilization of the inhabitants ; in the pine-bearing
strata, implements of stone are found; with the oak trees,
implements of bronze, and higher up, implements of iron. It
has also been attempted to trace a somewhat similar succession
of periods in the gravels and alluvium of the torrent of Tiniere,
in Switzerland ; but the evidence in this case is not considered
so satisfactory as in that of the Danish peat bogs.

In Chaldea, the transition from stone to bronze has been
traced by the relics found in the soil ; iron being then used only
in small quantities, and chiefly for ornaments, as amongst the
ancient Britons in the time of Caesar.1 In Egypt, where
both bronze and iron weapons have been found in the tombs,
the transition from bronze to iron is marked by the colour
of the weapons in the paintings, and dates, according to
Sir Gardner Wilkinson, about B.C. 1400. Hesiod speaks of
an age of copper, when the f black iron did not exist '. Homer
also alludes frequently to copper or bronze implements, and
when iron is mentioned always speaks of it as requiring much
time and labour to fabricate it. Then we have the well-known
passage from Lucretius, so often quoted in reference to this
subject, in which the three ages of stone, bronze, and iron are

1 Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies (1864), vol. i. p. 120.

170 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [tti

mentioned ; * and Strabo mentions the Lusitanians as being-
armed partly with copper or bronze weapons.2

Many other quotations might be given from ancient authors
to prove that the existence of a bronze age preceding the use
of iron was known to the ancients, but I will not occupy your
time further with this part of the subject, seeing that others
far more competent to deal with it than myself have failed to
derive much information of value from this source. There is
often considerable difficulty in determining the exact meaning
of the writers, when speaking of the material of which weapons
are composed, the same word being sometimes used to express
copper, bronze, and iron. In fact it may, I think, safely be
said that, notwithstanding the large amount of useful information
that may be obtained from the study of the early writers, there
is no more fruitful source of error than the attempt to apply
ancient history and tradition to the elucidation of prehistoric
events. Modern science, and our fuller appreciation of the
value of evidence, have thrown far more light on prehistoric
times than ever fell to the lot of the ancients ; and it is for us,
therefore, to correct their errors, and not to be misled by them.

Professor Max Miiller, in the second series of his Science of
Language, has, however, drawn some important conclusions on
this subject, from the etymology of words representing metal,
of which it may be useful here to give a brief abstract. Quoting
Mr. E. B. Tylor's work on the Anahuac (p. 140), he says : ' The
Mexicans called their own copper or bronze tepuztli, which is said
to have meant originally hatchet ; the same word is now used for
iron, with which the Mexicans first became acquainted through
their intercourse with the Spaniards. Tepuztli then became
a general name for metal, and when copper had to be distin-
guished from iron, the former was called red tepuztli, and the
latter black tepuztli. The conclusion/ he says, c which we may
draw from this, viz. that Mexican was spoken before the

1 Arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt
Efc lapides, et item sylvaruni fragniina rami,

Et flamma atque ignis postquam sunt cognita primum

Posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta,

Et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus,

Quo facilis magis est natura, et copia maior. — V. 1282.

2 Strabo, b. iii. c. iii. 6, p. 154.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 171

introduction of iron into Mexico, is one of no great value,
because we know it from oth'er sources ' ; but applying the same
line of reasoning to Greek, he says, ' here, too, chalkos, which at
first meant copper, came afterwards to mean metal in general, and
clialkeus, originally a copper-smith, occurs in the Odyssey (is. 391)
in the sense of a blacksmith, or worker of iron/ What does
this prove ? It proves that Greek was spoken before the intro-
duction of iron. The name for copper is shared in common by
Latin and the Teutonic languages, as, Latin; aiz, Gothic; er,
old high German ; erz, modern German ; ar, Anglo-Saxon ; and
the same word is represented in our English word ore. But
the words specifically used for iron differ in each of the
principal branches of the Aryan family. At the same time the
words originally representing copper come to be used for metal
in general, and in some cases for iron. In Sanskrit, ayas,
which is the same word as as, came to be used for iron, a
distinction being made between dark ayas or iron, and bright
ayas or copper. Ms in Latin, and aiz in Gothic, came to be
used for metal in general, but was never used for iron. Aiz,
however, according to Grimm, gave rise to the Gothic word
eisarn, meaning iron. In old high German eisarn is changed
into isam, later to isan, and lastly to the modern eisen, while
the Anglo-Saxon hern is converted into wen, and ultimately to
iron. The learned Professor sums up his researches on this
subject as follows: — fWe may conclude/ he says, 'that
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and German were spoken before the
discovery of iron, that each nation became acquainted with
that most useful of all metals after the Aryan family was broken
up, and that each of the Aryan languages coined its name for
iron from its own resources, and marked it by its own national
stamp, while it brought the names for gold, silver, and copper
from the common treasury of their ancestral home ,.1

These remarks point to a very remote period, and to an Aryan
origin for the first knowledge of copper and bronze, but on the
other hand much has been written in favour of a Semitic origin,
especially by Professor Nilsson, who believes that he has dis-
covered traces of that people even on the coast of Norway.2

1 Max Muller, Science of Language, 2nd Series (1864), pp. 229-37.

2 Nilsson, The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia (Lubbock, 3rd ed., 1868),
p. 257.

172 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

The employment of war chariots, which are known to have
been used by the Britons, and vestiges of which have been
found in their graves, implies, it is said, Semitic influence. Much
stress is also laid upon the resemblance of some of the ornaments
found on the Danish and other bronzes to those in use by
the Phoenicians ; more especially the spiral ornaments, which
Professor Nilsson traces to that source through the engravings
on weapons in the bronze age tumuli. Against this, however,
it may be urged that the spiral ornament has a very wide distri-
bution, extending over modern Africa, ancient Egypt, Greece,
China, New Guinea, Mexico, and South America, and even to
New Zealand and the Asiatic Isles. In illustration of this
I have arranged upon Plate XIX a series of illustrations
of spiral ornament from various countries, showing how uni-
versally it is distributed over the globe. Fig. 12 is from
a New Zealand canoe in my collection; Fig. 13, from a club
brought from New Guinea by the commander of the c Rattle-
snake \ in 1849, and now in my collection ; Fig. 14, from China;
Fig. 15, from ancient Egypt; Fig. 16, from Greece; Fig. 17,
from a Danish bronze sword; Fig. 18, from an Irish bronze
brooch in my collection ; Fig. 19, from the Swiss lakes, figured
in Dr. Keller's work ; Fig. 20, an iron ornament in my collection
from Central Africa ; Fig. 21, an iron ornament on a club, from
the Bight of Benin, West Africa, in the Christy Collection;
Fig. 22, an ornament on a wooden arrow-head, in the Christy
Collection, probably from one of the Melanesian isles ; Fig. 23,
from Hallstatt ; Fig. 24, a cane arrow-head from the Amazons,
South America ; Fig. 25, a spindle- whirl from Mexico ; Fig. 26,
on a bronze shield from the Caucasus : Fig. 27, an ornament on
a bracelet from Hindustan, in the British Museum ; Fig. 28, an
ornament carved upon the stones of New Grange, in Ireland;
Fig. 29, from a New Zealand canoe. Compare the two last
figures with Fig. 30, a stone weight in my collection, lately
fished up on the coast of Kent, whilst dredging for whelks ; the
ornamentation so closely resembles the New Zealand pattern,
and at the same time that of the stone carvings of the European
tumuli, that considering the circumstance of its discovery, it
is purely a matter for conjecture whether it is to be referred to
the antiquities of this country, or has been dropped overboard by

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 173

some vessel returning from our South Pacific colonies. We see
from these examples that the .spiral ornament cannot be regarded
as belonging exclusively to any one race ; it is a contrivance
derived simply from the coil of string, the source from which,
and also from straw plaiting, nearly all barbaric ornamentation
had its origin ; it is a proof merely of barbaric origin, an evidence
of continuity from the earliest periods of art.

Mr. Franks in his remarks at the Paris Meeting of the
International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology, has sum-
marily disposed of the question of Phoenician ornamentation, by
observing that the Phoenicians were copyists, taking their style
from Egypt, Greece, or Rome, according to the fashion of the
period, and that in point of fact a Phoenician style of art has
never existed (Compte Rendu, IIme Session, Paris, 1868, p. 251).

Amongst those who have upheld the theory of the origin of
bronze from Phoenician sources, may be mentioned Mr. Howorth,
in a paper lately published in the Tra?isactions of the Ethnological
Society (1868, N.S., vol. vi. pp. 73-100) ; and Sir John Lubbock,
though not committing himself to the same view as regards the
origin of bronze, has nevertheless been at the pains of ably
defending the ancient authors who speak of Phoenician inter-
course with Britain from the attacks made upon them by Sir
George Cornewall Lewis {Prehistoric Times, 1869, pp. 59-69).

This being the existing state of our knowledge in regard to the
introduction of bronze, and the variety of opinion on the subject
being, as we have seen, considerable, the task before us will be to
ascertain as far as may be possible, from the implements them-
selves, the history of their origin, by examining carefully their
construction in the various regions in which they occur, and by
tracing the geographical distribution of those details of form
which show evidence of connexion ; thereby to determine, if
possible, the sources from which they were derived. Whatever
degree of veracity we may be disposed to attribute to early
history, we must at least admit that the implements have this
advantage over written testimony of any kind, that they cannot
intentionally mislead us. If we draw wrong inferences from
them, the fault is our own. We shall find the evidence very
fragmentary as yet, but sufficient to prove that it affords
a valuable source of information whenever sufficient materials

174 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

are collected to enable us to work out the problem to its legiti-
mate ends.

On the present occasion I propose to confine my remarks to
showing-, by means of the accompanying table (Plate XVIII),
the distribution of some of the commoner varieties of the copper
and bronze celt, an instrument which, like its prototype in stone,
appears to have been employed both as tool and as weapon for all
the various purposes to which it was capable of being turned,
and to have been used not merely as a hatchet and battle-axe, but
also to have been sometimes hafted on the end of a straight handle,
to be used as a spud or crowbar, and even perhaps, as some of the
forms appear to indicate, as a spade in tilling the ground.

The table is arranged upon the same plan as Plate XIII of my
last lecture, and is intended to serve as a continuation of Plate XII
of the same lecture, showing a further development of the same
weapon. The successive developments are arranged, in order, by
classes from left to right ; the several localities are separated
by horizontal dotted lines, by means of which are seen the various
types prevalent in each locality, in so far as I have been able to
obtain drawings from published sources ; there can be no doubt,
however, that the table is still very imperfect, and that con-
siderable additions may be made to it hereafter. On the left, in
Class A, will be found celts with convex surfaces, identical
in form to those constructed of stone, the relative antiquity
of which is shown by their being almost invariably of pure
or nearly pure copper. It has been suggested that this form
may have been adopted on account of its being more easily
produced by beating the copper, and that its resemblance to
the stone celts is not necessarily a proof of age ; but there is no
reason why Class B should not be as easily formed as Class A by
this means, and many are so formed, as may be seen in the table.
Moreover, Fig. 3 a is a bronze celt of the earlier form, taken from
Prehistoric Times, and as this must have been cast in a mould,
its peculiar shape can only be accounted for by supposing it to
have been constructed in imitation of the stone celts. In passing
from Class B, a gradual development of form may be traced,
commencing with a slight stop or ridge across, and rudimentary
flanges along the side of the shaft of the blade, developing
in size and improving in form, no doubt, as the art of casting

m] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 175

bronze became gradually perfected.1 These stops and flanges
are at first raised on the surface of the blade, but by degrees the
same purpose is effected by sinking a groove in the blade to
receive the handle, thereby economizing the metal, and producing
a more symmetrical form; the flanges were at the same time
bent over, and ultimately cast with a cavity on each side to
receive the handle, and obviate the necessity for binding on the
celt with thongs. This led by degrees to the ultimate perfection
of the weapon, by the introduction of the socket type, which is
associated with weapons of iron, and is sometimes itself con-
structed of that metal.

The order of development here adopted is in the main that
followed by Sir William Wilde, in his Catalogue of the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy, but I have omitted all mention of
branch varieties, as they do not serve my purpose of illustrating
the continuity of development, though they are valuable in
showing the connexion between localities.

Although the course of development appears to have followed
the order here indicated, it is not unlikely the earlier forms may
have continued in use, and may even have continued to be con-
structed at the same time as the later forms. The earlier and
less complicated types, being easier of construction, and being
equally serviceable for some purposes, would continue to be
made, in the same way that smooth-bores and rifle-barrels, row-
boats, sailing-vessels, and steam-packets, continue to be used
simultaneously in our own time.

The progress of development of this weapon will be better
understood by a detailed reference to the figures.

Reference to the Figures in Plate XVIII.2

COPPER, BRONZE, AND IRON CELTS.

Class A. — Copper celts from various localities, having convex
surfaces, in form resembling those of stone. — Figs. 1, 2, and 3,

1 Sir Richard Colt Hoare found four of these celts in the Wiltshire barrows,
with rudimentary flanges along the side edges of the blade that had been
formed by beating, and similarly formed flanges have also been noticed upon
celts from Ireland, thereby leading to the supposition that Class B may have
been converted into Class D in this way, before the casting process was
applied to the formation of the flanges. — The Ancient History of South Wiltshire
(London, 1812), p. 203, pi. xxi, xxvi, xxviii. 2, xxix.

2 (The greatly reduced scale of these figures makes exact verification of
the references impracticable in all cases. — Ed.)

176 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

from Ireland, in my collection. — Fig. 3 a, a bronze celt of the same
form, from Le Puy, France, Prehistoric Times, p. 27. — Fig. 4,
copper celt found at Blengow, Mecklenberg-Schwerin Museum ;
Home Ferales. — Fig. 5, copper celt from the lake dwellings of
Sipplingen, Switzerland, found embedded in a coating of clay
(a mould?). See Keller, The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland,
(transl. J. E. Lee, 1866), p. 121, Plate xxix. — Fig. 6, copper celt
found in an Etruscan tomb, and now in the Berlin Museum.
See Catalogue of the Royal Irish Academy, ' Bronze/ pp. 367, 395.

Class B. — Copper and bronze celts from various localities,
having flat concave sides, and a rectangular cross section, show-
ing a gradual enlargement of the cutting edge. — Figs. 7 to 12,
copper celts from Ireland, in my collection, showing a gradual
enlargement of the cutting edge. — Figs. 13, 14, 15, ditto, ditto,
of bronze, the sides more concave, and the cutting edge more
expanded. — Fig. 16, bronze celt, of similar form, from Denmark
(Madsen, Afbildninger af Danshe Oldsager og Mindesmcerher ,
Copenhagen, 1872, Heft iii, Fig. 1). — Fig. 17, copper celt from
Steinfurt, in the collection of Professor Dieffenbach, at Friedberg,
Lindenschmit, Die Alter thtlmer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit (Mainz,
1864 ff.), Plate 3. — Fig. 18, ditto of copper, found near Mainz,
Museum of Mainz, Lindenschmit, Plate 3. — Fig. 19, the same
form of bronze, from near Mainz, Lindenschmit. — Fig. 20, the
same form of bronze from Italy, British Museum.1 — Figs. 21, 22,
23, the same form of copper from Hungary, Keller, p. 219, Plate
lxviii. — Figs. 24, 25, 26, similar forms of bronze, with rectangular
holes,f rom the Island of Thermia, Greek Archipelago, -Sn^/jilf useum.

Class C. — Bronze celts of the same outline as Class B, but
having a cross ridge or stop on both faces, to prevent the blade
from burying itself in the handle. — Figs. 27, 28, bronze celts from
Ireland, in m,y collection ; this form is common to the British Isles.

Class D.2 — Bronze celts, having four longitudinal ridges or

1 I have been enabled to take drawings of these celts in the British
Museum, through the kind permission of Mr. A. W. Franks.

2 The forms included in Classes D, E, F, and G-, are commonly known
under the name of paalstab or palstave, a word of Scandinavian origin, said to
have designated the weapons employed by some northern tribes for battering
the shields of their enemies. Iron implements like the Irish loy, and called
paalstabs, are still used in Iceland, either for digging in the ground or break-
ing the ice. — Catalogue of the Museum of the R. I. Academy, 'Bronze,' p. 361.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 177

flanges, one on each edge, but no cross stop. The flanges are
for the purpose of fixing the blade in a bent handle ; they exhibit
a gradual development of the flange, and an expansion of the
cutting edge, which latter takes a semicircular, and in some
cases nearly a circular form. — Figs. 29, 30, from Ireland, in my
collection, showing front view and section. — Fig. 31, from Ver-
sailles, in my collection, with section. — Fig. 32, from France;
with side view; see Materialise poitr VHistoire de l' Homme. —
Fig. 33, from Loyette, Department of Isere, from Home Ferales,
front view. — Fig. 34, from the South of France, British Museum,
the blade very circular. — Fig. 35, from Alps [Aps ?], in Ardeche,
British Museum, the circular form of the blade still more developed.
This form appears peculiar to the neighbourhood of the Rhone,
Horae Ferales. — Fig. 36, from France ; with side view ; Materiaux.
— Fig. 37, from Denmark, British Museum, of copper ; this form
is rarely found in copper; with section. — Fig. 38, from Denmark,
of bronze, from Madsen, Heft iii. — Fig. 39, from Denmark, with
semicircular blade, Madsen, Heft iii. — Fig. 40, from Hessen,
now in the collection at Hanover, Lindenschmit, Heft i, Taf.
iii. — Fig. 41, from near Baltringen, Lindenschmit. — Fig. 42,
from Neinheiligen, in Thuringia, British Museum; with
section. — Fig. 43, from the Terramara Beds, Castione,
Switzerland ; with section ; Keller, Plate lix. — Fig. 44,
from Unter Uhldingen ; with section ; Keller, Plate xxix.
— Fig. 45, from the Terramara Beds, Castione; with section;
Keller, Plate lix. — Fig. 46, from the Terramara Beds, Castione ;
with section; Keller, Plate lix. — Fig. 47, from Hallstatt, in
Austria, von Sacken, Has Grabfeld von Hallstatt in Oberosterreich
und dessen Alterthumer (Vienna, 1868), Taf. vii ; with side view. —
Fig. 48, ditto, ditto, found with the body of a child. — Fig. 49,
ditto, the shaft of bronze, and the blade of iron, from Hallstatt.
— Fig. 50, the same form in iron, also from Hallstatt, in
Mr. John Evans' collection. — Figs. 51 and 52, similar forms,
in bronze, from Italy, British Museum. — Fig. 53, the same form,
from Telsch, Vilna, Russia, British Museum ; with two sections.

Class E. — Bronze celts having both the cross stop and the
longitudinal flanges. In the earliest form, the cross stop and
flanges are raised upon the faces of the blade, as in Class D.
In the more improved form, the upper part of the shaft of the

178 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [m

blade is hollowed so as to answer the same purpose and
economize the metal. Figs. 54-8, from Ireland; Fig. 54, with rudi-
mentary stop and flanges, in my collection. Figs. 55 and 56, ditto,
with rudimentary stop, the flanges more developed; m my
collection. Fig. 57, showing a development of both stop and
flange, ditto, ditto. Fig. 58, showing the stop and flange further
developed, and the metal of the upper part of the blade slightly
sunk, ditto, ditto. Fig. 59, a further development of the same,
the metal of the upper part of the shaft of the blade reduced
to a minimum. — Fig. 60, the same form as Fig. 54, from
Denmark, Madsen, Heft iii. — Fig. 61, from near Mainz,
Lindenschmit, Taf. iii. — Fig. 62, from the Museum at Wies-
baden, Lindenschmit, Taf. iii. — Fig. 63, from Altona, in Courland ;
this form has some affinity to Class Of, but is introduced here
on account of the expansion of the blade. — Figs. 64, 65, and
66, from Italy, in the British Museum, the metal of the shaft
slightly sunk to produce a stop. — Fig. 67, from Fiesole, Italy,
the metal part of the shaft further reduced. — Fig. 68, from
Baron von Stackelberg's collection, in the British Museum., also
described in Klemm, Werkzeage mid Waffen, p. 103, Fig. 180 ; said
to be from Greece, but its close resemblance to those from Italy
is remarkable.

Class F. — The same form as Class E, but having the flanges
bent by hammering over the stop ; the flanges appear to have
been cast upright, as in Class E, and to have been bent over
the cleft handle after hafting ; by this means the necessity for
binding the blade on with thongs was obviated. This class
forms a transition to the socket type. — Figs. 69, 70, 71, from
Ireland, in my collection. — Fig. 72, from the Royal Irish
Academy collection, having a loop on the side. See Catalogue
B. I. A., 'Bronze/ page 379. The introduction of the loop appears
to be synchronous with the abandonment of the binding, the
overlapping flanges answering that purpose by enclosing the
bent portion of the handle, and requiring only that it should
be fastened by the loop to prevent its falling off the end of
the handle. — Fig. 73, from Denmark, in my collection. — Figs. 74,
75, from Denmark, Madsen, Heft iii. — Fig. 76, from the Museum
at Hanover, Lindenschmit. — Fig. 77, from the Museum at
Munich, Lindenschmit, Taf. iv. — Fig. 78, from Moringen,

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 179

Switzerland, Keller, Plate xli. — Fig-. 79, from Nidau- Steinberg,
Switzerland, Keller, Plate xxxv. — Fig. 80; from Hallstatt; Von
Sacken. — Fig. 81, from Italy, British Museum.

Class G. — The pocket type. The bent portion of the handle
in this ease was retained in its place by pockets cast on each
side of the shaft of the blade ; it seems doubtful whether this,
or Class F, is to be regarded as the nearest approach to the
socket type. In Class F the overlapping was produced by
hammering the metal ; but Class G is a further advance in the
casting process. — Figs. 82 and 83, from Ireland; in my collection ;
the latter with loop ; the pockets or pouches to receive the points
of the bent handle are shown in the sections. — Fig. 84; from
France ; see Materiauoo pour UHistoire de V Homme. — Fig. 85;
found twelve leagues south of Oviedo, Spain; in the collection of
the Society of Antiquaries. — Fig. 86; from Andalusia; Spain,
British Museum. — Fig. 87; from Denmark; Mad sen, Heft iii. —
Fig. 88; from the collection at Munich; Lindenschmit. — Fig. 89;
from the collection at Hanover, Lindenschmit. — Fig. 89 a, an
iron celt of the same form, still in use by the Kalmucs,
Siberia, Prehistoric Times, p. 26.

Class H. — The socket type. In some of the specimens of
Class Gr, as for example Figs. 82 and 83, the metal portion of
the shaft of the blade dividing the two pouches is reduced to
a minimum. The next step was to do away with it altogether
and enlarge the sides of the pouches so as to form a single socket.
By this means the bent handle no longer required to be cleft to
receive the blade, but was inserted whole into the socket, pro-
ducing greater firmness, each blow of the axe serving to fix it
more securely to its handle. The loops, seen only occasionally
on Classes F and G, are almost invariably present in Class H. —
Figs. 90, 91, 92, 93, 94. Socket celts of bronze, from Ireland
and England, in my collection ; the form with square sides is very
uncommon in Ireland ; in Fig. 92 a representation of the over-
lapping flange of Class F is cast on the surface of the socket. —
Fig. 94a, a socket celt of wrought iron with loop, from Merioneth-
shire, British Museum ; Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. i, third
series, p. 250. — Figs. 95 and 96, the same forms from France.
See Materiaux, fyc. The square-sided celt is common in the
north of France. — Fig. 97, from Alemquez, Portugal; Coll.

N %

180 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

Societe des Archit. Portugais. — Fig. 98, from Denmark, in my
collection. — Figs. 99, 100, Denmark, Madsen, Heft i. — Fig. 100a,
an iron socket celt, from the moss of Nydam, in Slesvik, of the
iron period ; Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron Age (1866),
PI. xv; believed, from the Roman coins found with it, to
be of the third century a.d.1 — Fig. 101, from the collection at
Hanover, Lindenschmit. — Fig. 102, from the Museum at Mainz,
Lindenschmit. — Fig. 103, socket celt of iron, from Golssen,
Klemm, Fig. 195.— Fig. 104, socket celt of iron, from Thuringia,
Klemm, Fig. 194. — Fig. 105, of bronze, from Unter Uhldingen,
Switzerland; Keller, PI. xxix. — Fig. 106, of iron, found near
Marin, Switzerland, the socket formed by beating over the blade
on one side only ; the socket is not quite completed ; see Keller,
PI. lxxi. — Fig. 107, the same form of iron, found near Marin ;
the socket is closed and completed all round, Keller, PI. lxxi.
These specimens in iron may be regarded as connecting links
between Classes F and H. Viewing the occurrence of iron celts
of this form, it appears not impossible that the introduction of
the socket type and the sudden abolition of the central division
may have been suggested by the use of the more malleable
metal, by means of which the fabricator acquired the art of
forming a socket by bending over the metal on one side ; the
inutility of the central division would thus become apparent.— -
Fig. 108, bronze socket celt with loop, from Hallstatt, Von
Sacken. — Fig. 109, exactly the same form in iron, from Hallstatt ;
a portion of the wooden handle is still shown in this specimen.
— Figs. 110 and 111, bronze socket celts, from Italy, of a
variety peculiar to that country, British Museum. — Fig. 112,
socket celt of copper, from Hungary, believed by the author to
be the only known specimen of pure copper ; Keller, PI. lxxviii. —
Fig. 113, bronze socket celt, from Hungary, British Museum. —
Fig. 114, bronze socket celt, with two loops, from Kertch, British
Museum. — Fig. 115, bronze socket celt, from the province of
Viatka, Russia. See Materiaux, fyc. — Fig. 116, bronze socket
celt with two loops, from the Ural, Russia. — Fig. 117, mode
of hafting, Classes A, B, and C. — Fig. 118, mode of haft-
ing, Classes D, E, F, and G. — Fig. 119, mode of hafting,
Class H.

1 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times (1869), p. 9.

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 181

In a paper lately read to the Society of Antiquaries by
Dr. Thurnam,1 he has drawn attention to the fact that none but
celts of the most primitive type, viz. those belonging to Classes
B, C, D, and the most rudimentary form of Class E, have been
found in the British tumuli. Scarcely a single instance of the
more developed palstave or of the socketed celt has as yet been
discovered ; the only exceptions being a bronze socket celt found
in a tumulus on Plumpton Plain, near Lewes, and a diminutive
bronze socket celt found in a tumulus at Arras in the Yorkshire
wolds. These Arras barrows are known, however, to belong to
the iron age ; having produced, amongst other articles composed
of that metal, the iron tire of the wheel, and trappings of a war
chariot. We learn from this that the discoveries in the tumuli
confirm in point of time the order of development inferred from
a consideration of the implements themselves.

From the foregoing detailed description of Plate XVIII we
are enabled to draw the following conclusions, viz. : — (1) That
in each of the divisions of Europe therein represented, traces of
the development of the celt, from its simplest to its most
complex form, have been discovered ; the earliest forms being in
imitation of those of stone, and being not unfrequently con-
structed of pure copper. Where some of the connecting links
are wanting in the table there is reason to suppose the absence
of those links may be the result of imperfect information, and
does not necessarily imply a flaw in the continuity of develop-
ment. (2) That, notwithstanding the simultaneous development
which appears to have taken place in different countries, we
may nevertheless observe slight differences in the details of
construction, which are sufficient to give a distinctive character
to the celts of each separate region. Thus, for instance, the
celts from Ireland are, as a general rule, shorter and less elegant
in form than those found on the Continent. Class C, consisting
of stop celts without wings, though common in Great Britain
and Ireland, is, so far as I have been able to ascertain, unknown
on the Continent. On the other hand, Class D, having wings
without stops, is rare in Ireland, but common in France,

1 Read in 1869, published in Archaeologia, xliii. p. 443 : for Plumpton Plain,
see Sussex Arch. Coll. ii. p. 268 : for Arras, Arch. Journ. xviii. p. 156.

182 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. The development of
this class of celt into a nearly circular edge, as represented in
Eigs. 34 and 35, is peculiar to the south of France, though
traces of it are observable in the celts from Germany, Fig. 40.
Class E, having both stop and flange, is found in a more
rudimentary stage in Ireland than elsewhere. The palstaves of
this form, having shoulders on the side of the blade, are peculiar
to Italy and Switzerland, Figs. 66, 67, and 68. Class F, with
overlapping wings, is but slightly developed in Ireland, but is
fully so in Italy, Germany, and at Hallstatt. Class G, the
double pocket variety, has its head quarters in the north-west
of France, but is also known in Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and
Germany; it is, in so far as I have been able to ascertain,
unknown in Italy. Class H, the socket type, varies greatly in
different countries; the square form, Figs. 93, 94, 95, 96, 100,
and 102, is exceedingly rare in Ireland, but common in France.
The socket celts from Italy, Figs. 110 and 111, are of peculiar
type, and evidently derive their form from the winged palstave
of the same country, Fig. 67. Socket celts of iron have been
found at Hallstatt, and in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and
North Wales. The representation of the overlapping wings,
cast on the surface of the socket celt, Figs. 92 and 101, is
common in England and Germany, but exceedingly rare in
Ireland. The double-looped socket celt, Figs. 97, 114, and 116,
appears to be especially characteristic of the Eastern provinces
of Russia and Siberia, though found occasionally elsewhere.

In attempting to account for the varieties, which I have
described, in the details of construction, coupled with a general
uniformity of design throughout the entire region of distribution
of these weapons, we may, I think, draw an exact parallel
between the development of bronze celts and the development
of the forms of cannon between the fourteenth and the
nineteenth centuries. From Europe to China we know that
the form of cannon has developed upon the same plan. In the
same way that the overlapping wings of the palstave were
represented on the faces of the socket celt, so the rings of metal
which bound together the bars of which the ancient bombard
was composed, were represented on the surface of the cast
bronze cannon which superseded it. In every country the

in] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 183

general type of development of cannon has been the same, but
the details of construction have varied in each. Even in our
own time, the introduction of breech-loaders has been synchronous
throughout Europe ; but the French and English cannon are not
perfectly identical. Now, the cause of this is sufficiently well
known. There has been constant intercommunication between
the several countries throughout the whole period of the develop-
ment of this weapon. Each new improvement as it occurred
has been communicated from one country to another, either by
contact in war, or by peaceful intercourse ; but each country has
fabricated its own weapons, and has by that means contrived to
give them a national character.

So in like manner we must assume that the development of
the bronze celt extended over a long period of time ; that each
new improvement was communicated from tribe to tribe and
from nation to nation ; but that each country manufactured its
own implements, and varied in the construction of them. The
proof that this was the case is found in the circumstance that
moulds for casting them have been found in different countries.
Plate XX, Fig. 31, represents a stone mould found at Bally-
nahinch, Co. Down, Ireland, and figured in the Catalogue of
the Royal Irish Academy ; it is adapted for easting celts of the
Class B. Fig. 32 is a stone mould for Class Gr, found at
Montaigu, near Valoignes, Normandy, and is taken from a cast
in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. Fig. 33, a stone
mould for Class H, from Kilkenny, Ireland. Fig. 34, two
halves of a bronze mould for Class E, from Morges, Switzerland,
figured in Keller, Plate xxxix. Fig. 35, two halves of a bronze
mould for Class H, found in the Forest of Bricquebec, Normandy,
in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. Fig. 36, one-half
of a bronze mould for Class H, from England, figured in the
Catalogue of the Royal Irish Academy, ' Bronze/ page 393. In
the three last specimens it will be seen that the mode of fitting
the two halves together, so as to prevent the escape of the
metal, is by means of a ridge on one half, fitting into a groove
in the other. It is improbable that a contrivance so identical
as this should have arisen independently in the three countries.
Further proof of connexion is shown by the identity of the ribs
in the interior of the sockets of celts belonging to Class H.

184 PRIMITIVE WARFARE [in

Figs. 37 and 38 represent sections of socket celts from Ireland,
the former showing three, the latter one, longitudinal rib of
raised metal running from the bottom of the socket for some
distance up the side of the interior of the socket. Fig. 39 is
the section of a socket celt from Denmark, in my collection,
having one rib of the same kind. It has been suggested that
these ribs represent the interstices between slices of the core, by
means of which the socket was formed in casting ; if so, the
cores must have been constructed of some hard material, cut in
slices, in order to facilitate their removal from the socket when
formed. Several objections may, however, be urged against
this ; in the first place, no such cores have ever been discovered,
which tends to the supposition that the cores must, in all
probability, have been constructed of clay; in the second place,
it will be seen by reference to Fig. 20 that this celt has only
one central rib ; if, therefore, the rib was formed by the metal
pressing into the interstices between the slices of the core, it is
evident that the core in this case had only two slices ; but it will
be seen that the aperture of the socket expands towards the
bottom, and it would have been impossible, therefore, to extract
the core if it were divided into only two parts.

The theory of core slices must, therefore, be abandoned, and
we are driven to the conclusion that the ribs must have been
intentional, either to give strength to the celt, which is unlikely
from the great thickness of the metal, or to form channels for
the passage of the metal in casting, or, what is more probable,
to serve the purpose of gripping the portion of the wooden
handle which fitted into the socket, and preventing its shifting
with the blows of the weapon. Fig. 39 represents cross ribs at the
bottom of the socket of a celt from Denmark, in my collection.
Whatever may have been the purpose for which the ribs were
formed, their identity in the implements of the two countries
serves us as an additional proof of intercourse between them.

Although moulds for casting celts have not been found in
Denmark, there is evidence to show, from vestiges of scoriae
that have been found, that they were there cast in clay, as
indeed they must probably have been to a great extent in other
parts of Europe.

It would be premature to speculate upon the primary sources

[J. R. U. S. I., XIII. PI. xxxi, in colour.]

Plate XVII.

[,/. H. V. S. 1., XIII. PI. issii. »> colour.]
A.

DEVELOPMENT OF FORM IN CELTS OF COPPER, BRONZE AND IRON

C. D. E.

Plate XVIII.

010

si 01 a I

) <c) (c) (c)

(b) (b) (b)

Jflr

M! teMff §

(b) (b> (b) (b) (b) (b) (b) (b)

' !

riB 119

61 62 63

43 44 45

» Ifcl

64 ^5 ^06 ^.67

(b) <b) (b) (bf

m

76 77

lib) H (bl

(b) I (b| (W

#

(b) <b) (b)

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in

o-flt

Islands

VUna

c -

[J. R. U. S. I., XIII. PI. xxxiii, upper half.]

Plate XIX.

Scale!')

[J. R. V. S. I., XIII. PI. xxxiii,- loiver half.]

Plate XX.

o ^ £

m] PRIMITIVE WARFARE 185

of the bronze civilization of Europe, until we have examined
carefully the distribution of' the other weapons belonging to
that period. This much may, however, I think, be said with
respect to the geographical region of bronze celts, that they
belong more especially to the north and west of Europe ; they
have never been found in any of those countries which were
occupied by the Phoenicians, nor have we any sufficient reason
for believing that they were common in Greece. We have,
therefore, no evidence whatever for supposing that the north of
Europe derived the first idea of these weapons from either
of those nations. We certainly have only negative evidence
as yet for affirming that they did not, but the burden of proof
must rest with those who have attributed them to the Phoenicians.
To what extent they were employed in Russia and Northern
Siberia, is a point which we have not as yet sufficient evidence
to determine. I think, however, I am justified in saying that
those hitherto discovered in Siberia are of a late type, belonging
chiefly to the socket variety, and that they are there often
associated with weapons of iron. I trust, however, to have an
opportunity of entering more fully into this subject on a future
occasion, when treating of the weapons of the later bronze and
early iron periods of Europe.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION1

(1874)

In the paper which I had the honour of reading to this In-
stitute at Bethnal Green (pp. 1-19), I spoke of the general princi-
ples by which I was guided in the course of inquiries, of which the
present paper forms a section. I need not, therefore, now refer
to them further than to say that the materials for this paper
were collected whilst writing a note to my catalogue raisonne
relating to the case of models of early forms of ships.2

In inquiries of this nature it is always necessary to guard
against the tendency to form theories in the first instance, and
go in search of evidence to support them afterwards. On the
other hand, in dealing with so vast a subject as Anthropology,
including all art, all culture, and all races of mankind, it is next
to impossible to adhere strictly to the opposite of this, and collect
the data first, to the exclusion of all idea of the purpose they are
to be put to in the sequel, because all is fish that comes into the
anthropological basket, and no such basket could possibly be big
enough to contain a millionth part of the materials necessary for
conducting an inquiry on this principle. Some guide is abso-
lutely necessary to the student in selecting his facts. The course
which I have pursued, in regard to the material arts, is to
endeavour to establish the sequence of ideas. When the links of
connexion are found close together, then the sequence may be
considered to be established. When they occur only at a dis-
tance, then they are brought together with such qualifications as
the nature of the case demands. Other members of this Institute

1 A Paper read at the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland on December 22, 1874, and published in the Journal of the Institute,
vol. iv (1875), pp. 399-435. (N.B. — This paper was not furnished by tbe author
with either plates or references. The former have been supplied, so far as
possible, on pp. 229 ff. : for illustrations, reference should be made to the
section on Navigation in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. — Ed.)

2 (The Catalogue of the Anthropological Collection lent by Col. Lane Fox to Bethnal
Green Museum (London, 1874, parts i and ii) only contains ' Weapons ' ;
part iii was never issued. — Ed.)

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 187

have followed the same course in relation to other branches of
culture, the object being- to lay the foundation of a true anthro-
pological classification, without seeking- either to support a dogma
or establish a paradox. This is, I believe, the requirement of our
time, and the necessary preliminary to the introduction of a science
of Anthropology.

Whilst, however, deprecating the influence of forgone con-
clusions, there are certain principles already established by
science which we cannot afford to disregard, even at the outset
of inquiries of this nature. It would be sheer moonshine, in the
present state of knowledge, to study Anthropology on any other
basis than the basis of development ; nor must we, in studying
development, fail to distinguish between racial development and
the development of culture. The affinity of certain races for
particular phases of culture, owing to the hereditary transmission
of faculties, constitutes an important element of inquiry to be
weighed in the balance with other things, just as the farmer
weighs in the balance of probabilities the nature of the soil in
which his turnips are growing; but when particular branches
of culture do run in the same channel with the distribution of
particular races, this is always a coincidence to be investigated
and explained, each by the light of its own history. It would
be just as reasonable to assume with the ancients, that the
knowledge of every art was originally inculcated by the gods, as
to assume that particular arts and particular ideas arise sponta-
neously and as a necessary consequence of the possession of
particular pigments beneath the skin.

Nobody doubts that there must be affinities and interdepen-
dencies between the race and the crop of ideas that is grown
upon it ; but the law, ex nihilo nihil jit, is as true of ideas as it
is of races, and in the relations between them it is as true and
has the same value, neither more nor less, as the statement that
potatoes do spring out of the ground where no potatoes have
been sown. To study culture is, therefore, to trace the history
of its development, as well as the qualities of the people amongst
whom it flourishes. In doing this it is not sufficient to deal
with generalities, as, for example, to ascertain that one people
employ bark canoes, whilst another use rafts. It is necessary to
consider the details of construction, because it is by means of

188 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

these details that we are sometimes able to determine whether
the idea has been of home growth or derived from without.
The difficulty is to obtain the necessary details for the purpose.
Travellers do not give them, as a rule, especially modern
travellers. The older books are more valuable, both because
they deal with nations in a more primitive condition, and also
because they are more detailed; books were fewer, and men
took more pains with them ; now the traveller writes for a cir-
culating- library, and for the unthinking portion of mankind,
who will not be bothered with details. I have been careful to
give the dates to the authors quoted. But we must endeavour
to remedy this evil before it is too late. The Notes and
Qtieries on Anthropology1, published by the Committee of the
British Association, are drawn up with this object. It is to be
hoped that they will receive attention, but I fear not much, for
the reasons already mentioned ; the supply will be equal to the
demand. As long as we have a large Geographical Society and
a small Anthropological Society, so long travellers will bring
home accurate geographical details, abundance of information
about the flow of water all over the world, but the flow of
human races and human ideas will receive little attention.
With these preliminary remarks I pass on to the subject of
my paper.

Modes of Navigation.

Following out the principle adopted in Parts 1 and 2 of my
Catalogue, of employing the constructive arts of existing savages
as survivals to represent successive stages in the development
of the same arts in prehistoric times, it may be advisable, in
order to study the history of each part of a canoe or primitive
sailing vessel, to divide the subject under seven heads, as follows :
viz. — (1) Solid trunks or dug-out canoes, developing into
(2) Vessels on which the planks are laced or sewn together, and
these developing into such as are pinned with plugs of wood,
and ultimately nailed with iron, or copper; (3) Bark canoes;
(4) Vessels of skins and wicker-work; (5) Bafts, developing

1 Notes and Queries on Anthropology, for the Use of Travellers and Residents in
Uncivilised Lands, drawn up by a Committee appointed by the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science (1874) ; 3rd edition, 1899, published by
the Anthropological Institute, 3 Hanover Square, W.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 189

into (6) Outrigger canoes, and ultimately into vessels of broader
beam, to which may be added -(7) rudders, sails, and contrivances
which gave rise to parts of a more advanced description of vessel,
such as the oculus, aplustre, forecastle, and poop.

1. Solid Trunks and Dug-out Canoes.

It requires but little imagination to conceive an idea of the
process by which a wooden support in the water forced itself upon
the notice of mankind. The great floods to which the valleys of
many large rivers are subject, more especially those which have
their sources in tropical regions, sometimes devastate the whole
country within miles of their banks, and by their suddenness
frequently overtake and carry down numbers of both men and
animals, together with large quantities of timber which had
grown upon the sides of the valleys. The remembrances of such
deluges are preserved in the traditions of many savage races, and
there can be little doubt that it was by this means that the
human race first learnt to make use of floating timber as
a support for the body. The wide distribution of the word
signifying ship — Latin navis ; Greek vavs ; Sanskrit nau ; Celtic
nao ; Assam nao ; Port Jackson, Australia, nao — attests the
antiquity of the term. In Bible history the same term has been
employed to personify the tradition of the first shipbuilder, Noah.

It is even said, though with what truth I am not aware,
that the American grey squirrel (Sciurus migratorius), which
migrates in large numbers, crossing large rivers, has been known
to embark on a piece of floating timber, and paddle itself across
(Wilson, Prehistoric Man, 1862, vol. i. p. 147).

The North American Indians frequently cross rivers by
clasping the left arm and leg round the trunk of a tree, and
swimming with the right (Steinitz, History of the Ship, PI. 2).

The next stage in the development of the canoe would consist
in pointing the ends, so as to afford less resistance to the
water. In this stage we find it represented on the NW. coast
of Australia. Gregory, in the year 1861, says that his ship
was visited on this coast by two natives, who had paddled off on
logs of wood shaped like canoes, not hollowed, but very buoyant,
about 7 feet long, and 1 foot thick, which they propelled with
their hands only, their legs resting on a little rail made of small

190 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

sticks driven in on each side. Mr. T. Baines, also, in a letter
quoted by the Rev. J. G. Wood, in his Natural History of
Man (vol. ii. p. 7), speaks of some canoes which he saw in North
Australia as being" 'mere logs of wood, capable of carrying
a couple of men '. Others used on the north coast are dug out,
but as these are provided with an outrigger, they have probably
been derived from New Guinea. The canoes used by the
Australians on the rivers consist either of a bundle of rushes
bound together and pointed at the ends, or else they are formed
of bark in a very simple manner; but on the south-east coast,
near Cape Howe, Captain Cook, in his first voyage, found
numbers of canoes in use by the natives on the seashore. These
he described as being very like the smaller sort used in New
Zealand, which were hollowed out by means of fire. One of
these was of a size to be carried on the shoulders of four men.

It has been thought that the use of hollowed canoes may
have arisen from observing the effect of a split reed or bamboo
upon the water. The nautilus is also said to have given the
first idea of a ship to man ; and Pliny, Diodorus, and Strabo have
stated that large tortoise-shells were used by primitive races of
mankind (Kitto, Pictorial Bible). It has also been supposed that
the natural decay of trees may have first suggested the employ-
ment of hollow trees for canoes, but such trees are not easily
removed entire. It is difficult to conceive how so great an
advance in the art of shipbuilding was first introduced, but
there can be no doubt that the agent first employed for this
purpose was fire.

I have noticed when travelling in Bulgaria that the gipsies
and others who roam over that country usually select the foot
of a dry tree to light their cooking fire ; the dry wood of the
tree, combined with the sticks collected at the foot of it, makes
a good blaze, and the tree throws forward the heat like a fire-
place. Successive parties camping on the same ground, attracted
thither by the vicinity of water, use the same fireplaces, and the
result is that the trees by degrees become hollowed out for some
distance from the foot, the hollow part formed by the fire
serving the purpose of a semi-cylindrical chimney. Such a tree,
torn up by the roots, or cut off below the part excavated by the
fire, would form a very serviceable canoe, the parts not excavated

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 191

by the fire being sound and hard. The Andaman islanders use
a tree in this manner as an oven, the fire being kept constantly-
burning in the hollow formed by the flames.

One of the best accounts of the process of digging out a canoe
by means of fire is that described by Kalm, on the Delaware
river, in 1747. He says that, when the Indians intend to fell
a tree, for want of proper instruments they employ fire ; they
set fire to a quantity of wood at the roots of the tree, and
in order that the fire might not reach further up than they
would have it, they fasten some rags to a pole, dip them in
water, and keep continually washing the tree a little above the
fire until the lower part is burnt nearly through; it is then
pulled down. When they intend to hollow a tree for a canoe,
they lay dry branches along the stem of the tree as far as it
must be hollowed out, set them on fire, and replace them by
others. While these parts are burning, they keep pouring
water on those parts that are not to be burnt at the sides and
ends. When the interior is sufficiently burnt out, they take
their stone hatchets and shells and scoop out the burnt wood.
These canoes are usually 30 or 40 feet long. In the account
of one of the expeditions sent out by Raleigh in 1584 a similar
description is given of the process adopted by the Indians of
Virginia, except that, instead of sticks, resin is laid on to the
parts to be excavated and set fire to : canoes capable of hold-
ing twenty persons were formed in this manner.

The Waraus of Guiana employ fire for excavating their
canoes ; and when Columbus discovered the Island of Guanahani
or San Salvador, in the West Indies, he found [fire] employed for
this purpose by the natives, who called their boats ' canoe \ a term
which has ever since been employed by Europeans to express
this most primitive class of vessel.

Dr. Mouat says that, in Blair's time, the Andaman islanders
excavated their canoes by the agency of fire; but it is not
employed for that purpose now, the whole operation being per-
formed by hand. Symes, in 1800, speaks of the Burmese war-
boats, which were excavated partly by fire and partly by cutting.
Nos, 1276 and 1277 of my collection are models of these boats.
In New Caledonia, Turner, in 1845, says that the natives felled
their trees by means of a slow fire at the foot, taking three or

192 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

four days to do it. In excavating' a canoe, he says, they kindle
a fire over the part to be burnt out, and keep dropping water
over the sides and ends, so as to confine the fire to the required
spot, the burnt wood being afterwards scraped out with stone
tools. The New Zealanders, and probably the Australians also,
employ fire for this purpose [Cook]. The canoes of the Krumen
in West Africa are also excavated by means of fire.

A further improvement in the development of the dug-out
canoe consists in bending the sides into the required form after
it has been dug out. This process of fire-bending has already
been described on p. 87 of my Catalogue (Parts i and ii), when
speaking of the methods employed by the Esquimaux and Austral-
ians in straightening their wooden spears and arrow-shafts. The
application of this process to canoe-building by the Ahts of the
north-west coast of North America is thus described by Mr. Wood
in his Natural History of 31an, vol. ii. p. 732. The canoe is carved
out of a solid trunk of cedar {Thuja gigantea). It is hollowed out,
not by fire, but by hand, and by means of an adze formed of
a large mussel-shell ; the trunk is split lengthwise by wedges.
All is done by the eye. When it is roughly hollowed it is
filled with water, and red-hot stones put in until it boils. This
is continued until the wood is quite soft, and then a number of
cross-pieces are driven into the interior, so as to force the canoe
into its proper shape, which it ever afterwards retains. While
the canoe is still soft and pliant, several slight cross-pieces are
inserted, so as to counteract any tendency towards warping.
The outside of the vessel is then hardened by fire, so as to
enable it to resist the attacks of insects, and also to prevent it
cracking when exposed to the sun. The inside is then painted
some bright colour, and the outside is usually black and highly
polished. This is produced by rubbing it with oil after the fire
has done its work. Lastly, a pattern is painted on its bow.
There is no keel to the boat. The red pattern of the painting
is obtained by a preparation of anato. For boring holes the
Ahts use a drill formed by a bone of a bird fixed in a wooden
handle.

A precisely similar process to this is employed in the forma-
tion of the Burmese dug-out canoes, and has thus been described
to me by Capt. O'Callaghan, who witnessed the process during

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 193

the Burmese War in 1852. A trunk of a tree of suitable
length, though much less in diameter than the intended width
of the boat, is cut into the usual form, and hollowed out. It is
then filled with water, and fires are lit, a short distance from
it, along its sides. The water gradually swells the inside, while
the fire contracts the outside, till the width is greatly increased.
The effect thus produced is rendered permanent by thwarts
being placed so as to prevent the canoe from contracting in
width as it dries ; the depth of the boat is increased by a plank
at each side, reaching as far as the ends of the hollowed part. ,
Canoes generally show traces of the fire and water treatment
just described, the inner surface being soft and full of superficial
cracks, while the outer is hard and close.

It is probable that this mode of bending canoes has been
discovered during the process of cooking, in which red-hot
stones are used in many countries to boil the water in vessels of
skin or wood, in which the meat is cooked. No. 1256 of my
collection is a model of an Aht canoe, painted as here described.
No. 1257 is a full-sized canoe from this region, made out of
a single trunk ; it is not painted, so that the grain of the wood
can be seen.

The distribution of the dug-out canoe appears to be almost uni-
versal. It is especially used in southern and equatorial regions.
Leaving Australia, we find it employed with the outrigger, which
will be described hereafter (pp. 218-9), in many parts of the
Polynesian and Asiatic islands, including New Guinea, New
Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Sandwich Islands. It was not
used by the natives of Tasmania, who employed a float consisting
of a bundle of bark and rushes, which will be described in another
place (p. 203). Wilkes speaks of it in Samoa, at Manilla, and
the Sooloo Archipelago. De Guignes in 1796 and De Morga in
1609 saw them in the Philippines, where they are called pangues,
some carrying from two to three and others from twelve to
fifteen persons. They are (or were) also used in the Pelew,
Nicobar, and Andaman Isles. In the India Museum there is
a model of one from Assam, used as a mail boat, and called dak
nao. In Burmah, Symes, in 1795, describes the war-boats of
the Irrawaddy as 80 to 100 feet long, but seldom exceeding
8 feet in width, and this only by additions to the sides;

194 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

carrying fifty to sixty rowers, who use short oars that work
on a spindle, and who row instead of paddling. Captain
O'Callaghan, however, informs me that they sometimes nse
paddles (Nos. 1276 and 1277). They are made of one piece of
the teak tree. The king had five hundred of these vessels of
war. They are easily upset, but the rowers are taught to avoid
being struck on the broadside ; they draw only 3 feet of
water. On the Menan, in Siam, Turpin, in 1771, says that the
king's ballons are made of a single tree, and will contain 150
rowers; the two ends are very much elevated, and the rowers
sit cross-legged, by which they lose a great deal of power. The
river vessels in Cochin China are also described as being of the
same long, narrow kind. At Eerhabad, in Persia, Pietro della
Valle, in 1614, describes the canoes as being flat-bottomed,
hollow trees, carrying ten to twelve persons.

In Africa, Duarte Barbosa, in 1514, saw the Moors at Zuama
make use of boats, almadias, hollowed out of a single trunk, to
bring clothes and other merchandise from Angos. Livingstone
says the canoes of the Bayeye of South Africa are hollow trees,
made for use and not for speed. If formed of a crooked stem
they become crooked vessels, conforming to the line of the
timber. On the Benuwe, at its junction with the [Yola],
Barth, for the first time in his travels southward, saw what
he describes as rude little shells hollowed out of a single
tree; they measured 25 to 30 feet in length, 1 to \\ foot
in height, and 16 inches in width; one of them, he says,
was quite crooked. On the White Nile, in Unyoro, Grant
says that the largest canoe carried a ton and a half, and was
hollowed out of a trunk. On the Kitangule, west of Lake
Victoria Nyanza, near Karague, he describes the canoes as
being hollowed out of a log of timber 15 feet long and the
breadth of an easy- chair. These kind of canoes are also used
by the Makoba east of Lake Ngami, by the Apingi and Camma,
and the Krumen of the West African coast ; of which last,
No. 1272 of my collection is a model.

In South America the Patagonians use no canoes, but in the
northern parts of the continent dug-out canoes are common.
One described by Condamine, in 1743, was from 42 to 44
feet long, and only 3 feet wide. They are also used in

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 195

Guiana, and Professor Wilson says that the dug-out canoe is
used throughout the West 'Indian Archipelago. According
to Bartram, who is quoted by Schoolcraft, the large canoes
formed out of the trunks of cypress trees, which descended the
rivers of Florida, crossed the Gulf, and extended their navigation
to the Bahama Isles, and even as far as Cuba, carrying twenty
to thirty warriors. Kalm, in 1747, gives some details respecting
their construction on theDelaware river already referred to (p. 191),
and says that the materials chiefly employed in North America are
the red juniper, red cedar, white cedar, chestnut, white oak, and
tulip tree. Canoes of red and white cedar are the best, because
lighter, and they will last as much as twenty years, whereas the
white oak barely lasts above six years. In Canada these dug-
outs were made of the white fir. The process of construction on
the west coast of North America has been already described (p. 192).
In Europe Pliny mentions the use of canoes hollowed out of
a single tree by the Germans. Amongst the ancient Swiss lake-
dwellers at Robenhausen, associated with objects of the stone
age, a dug-out canoe, or Einbcmm, made of a single trunk 12
feet long and 2-| wide, was discovered (Keller, Lake Dwellings ,
Lee 2, p. 45). In Ireland, Sir William Wilde says that amongst
the ancient Irish dug-out canoes were of three kinds. One was
small, trough-shaped, and square at the ends, having a projection
at either end to carry it by ; the paddlers sat flat at the bottom
and paddled, there being no rowlocks to the boat. A second
kind was 20 feet in length and 2 in breadth, flat-bottomed,
with round prow and square stern, strengthened by thwarts
carved out of the solid and running across the boat, two near
the stem and one near the stern. The prow was turned up;
one of these was discovered in a bog on the coast of Wexford,
12 feet beneath the surface. The third sort was sharp at
both ends, 21 feet long, 12 inches broad, and 8 inches
deep, and flat-bottomed. These canoes are often found in
the neighbourhood of the crannoges, or ancient lake-habitations
of the country, and were used to communicate with the land;
also in the beds of the Boyne and Bann. Ware says, that
dug-out canoes were used in some of the Irish rivers in his time,
and to this day I have seen paddles used on the Blackwater,
in the south of Ireland. Professor Wilson says that several

O 2

196 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

dug-out canoes have been found in the ancient river- deposits
of the Clyde, and also in the neighbourhood of Falkirk. In one
of those discovered in the Clyde deposits, at a depth of 25
feet from the surface, a stone almond-shaped celt was found.
Others have been found in the ancient river-deposits of Sussex
and elsewhere, in positions which show that the rivers must
probably have formed arms of the sea, at the time they were
sunk.

2. Vessels in which the Planks are Stitched to each Other.

All vessels of the dug-out class are necessarily long and narrow,
and very liable to upset; the width being limited by the size
of the tree, extension can only be given to them by increasing
their length. In order to give greater height and width to
these boats, planks are sometimes added at the sides and stitched
on to the body of the canoe by means of strings or cords, com-
posed frequently of the bark or leaves of the tree of which the
body is made. In proportion as these laced-on gunwales were
found to answer the purpose of increasing the stability of the
vessel, their number was increased; two such planks were
added instead of one, and as the joint between the planks was
by this means brought beneath the water line, means were taken
to caulk the seams with leaves, pitch, resin, and other substances.
Gradually the number of side planks increased and the solid
hull diminished, until, ultimately, it dwindled into a bottom-
board, or keel, at the bottom of the boat, serving as a centre-
piece on which the sides of the vessel were built. Still the
vessel was without ribs or framework ; ledges on the sides were
carved out of the solid substance of each plank, by means of
which they were fastened to the ledges of the adjoining plank,
and the two contiguous ledges served as ribs to strengthen
the boat ; finally, a framework of vertical ribs was added to the
interior and fastened to the planks by cords. Ultimately the
stitching was replaced by wooden pins, and the side planks
pinned to each other and to the ribs ; and these wooden pins
in their turn were supplanted by iron nails.

In different countries we find representations of the canoe in
all these several stages of development. Of the first stage, in
which side planks were added to the body of the dug-out canoe,

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 197

to heighten it, the New Zealand canoe, No. 1259 of my collec-
tion, is an example. Capt. Cook describes this as solid, the
largest containing from thirty men upwards. One measured
70 feet in length, 6 in width, and 4 deep. Each of the
side pieces was formed of an entire plank, about 12 inches
wide, and about 1^ inch thick, laced on to the hollow trunk
of the tree by flaxen cords, and united to the plank on the
opposite side by thwarts across the boat. These canoes have
names given to them like European vessels.

On the Benuwe, in Central Africa, Barth describes a vessel
in this same early stage of departure from the original dug-out
trunk. It consisted of ' two very large trunks joined together
with cordage, just like the stitching of a shirt, and without
pitching, the holes being merely stuffed with grass. It was not
water-tight, but had the advantage/ he says, f over the dug-out
canoes used on the same river, in not breaking if it came upon
a rock, being, to a certain degree, pliable. It was 35 feet
long, and 26 inches wide in the middle/ No. 1258 of my
collection is a model of one of these. The single plank added
to the side of the Burmese dug-out canoe has been already
noticed (p. 193). Although my informant does not tell me that
these side planks are sewn on, I have no doubt, judging by
analogy, that this either is or was formerly the case.

The Waraus of Guiana are the chief canoe-builders of this
part of South America, and to them other tribes resort from
considerable distances. Their canoe is hollowed out of a trunk
of a tree, and forced into its proper shape partly by means of fire
and partly by wedges, upon a similar system to that described
in speaking of the Ahts of North America (p. 192) and the
Burmese ; the largest have the sides made higher by a narrow
plank of soft wood, which is laced upon the gunwale, and the
seam caulked. This canoe is alike at both ends, the stem and
stern being pointed, curved, and rising out of the water ; there
is no keel, and it draws but a few inches of water. This appears
to be the most advanced stage to which the built-up canoe has
arrived on either continent of America, with the exception of
Tierra del Euego, where Commodore Byron, in 1765, saw canoes
in the Straits of Magellan made of planks sewn together with
thongs of raw hide ; these vessels are considerably raised at the

198 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

bow and stern, and the larger ones are 15 feet in length by
1 yard wide. They have also been described by more recent
travellers. Under what conditions have these miserable Fuegians
been led to the employment of a more complex class of vessel
than their more advanced congeners of the north ?

In order to trace the further development of the canoe in
this direction, we must return to Africa and the South Seas.
On the island of Zanzibar, Barbosa, in 1514, says that the
inhabitants of this island, and also Penda and Manfia, who
are Arabs, trade with the mainland by means of ' small vessels
very loosely and badly made, without decks, and with a single
mast ; all their planks are sewn together with cords of reed or
matting, and the sails are of palm mats \ On the river Yeou,
near Lake Tchad, in Central Africa, Denham and Clapperton
saw canoes ' formed of planks, rudely shaped with a small
hatchet, and strongly fastened together by cords passed through
holes bored in them, and a wisp of straw between, which the
people say effectually keeps out the water; they have high
poops like the Grecian boats, and would hold twenty or thirty
persons '. On the Logon, south-east of Lake Tchad, Barth says
the boats are built fin the same manner as those of the
Budduma, except that the planks consist of stronger wood,
mostly Birgem, and generally of larger size, whilst those of the
Budduma consist of the frailest material, viz. Fogo. In both,
the joints of the planks are provided with holes, through which
ropes are passed, overlaid with bands of reed tightly fastened
upon them by smaller ropes, which are again passed through
small holes stuffed with grass/ On the Victoria Nyanza, in
East Central Africa, Grant speaks of 'a canoe of five planks
sewn together, and having four cross-bars or seats. The bow
and stern are pointed, standing for a yard over the water, with
a broad central plank from stem to stern, rounded outside (the
vestige of the dug-out trunk), and answering for a keel/

Thus far we have found the planks of the vessels spoken of,
merely fastened by cords passed through holes in the planks,
and stuffed with grass or some other material, and the accounts
speak of their being rarely water-tight. Such a mode of con-
structing canoes might serve well enough for river navigation,
but would be unserviceable for sea craft. Necessity is the

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 199

mother of invention, and accordingly we must seek for a further
development of the system of water-tight stitching, amongst
those races in a somewhat similar condition of culture, which
inhabit the islands of the Pacific and the borders of the ocean
between it and the continent of Africa.

The majority of those vessels now to be described are fur-
nished with the outrigger; but as the distribution of this con-
trivance will be traced subsequently (p. 218 ff.), it will not be
necessary to describe it in speaking of the stitched plank-work.

In the Friendly Isles Captain Cook, in 1773, says ' the canoes
are built of several pieces sewed together with bandage in so
neat a manner that on the outside it is difficult to see the joints.
All the fastenings are on the inside, and pass through kants or
ridges, which are wrought on the edges and ends of the several
boards which compose the vessel/ At Otaheite he speaks of the
same process, and says that the chief parts are formed separately
without either saw, plane, or other tool. La Perouse gives an
illustration of an outrigger canoe from Easter Island, the sides
of which are formed of drift-wood sewn together in this manner.
At Wytoohee, one of the Paumotu, or Low Archipelago, Wilkes,
in 1838, says that the canoes are formed of strips of cocoa-
nut tree sewed together. Speaking of those of Samoa, he
describes the process more fully. 'The planks are fastened
together with sennit ; the pieces are of no regular size or shape.
On the inside edge of each plank is a ledge or projection, which
serves to attach the sennit, and connect and bind it closely to
the adjoining one. It is surprising,-' he says, ' to see the
labour bestowed on uniting so many small pieces together, when
large and good planks might be obtained. Before the pieces
are joined, the gum from the husk of the bread-fruit tree is
used to cement them close, and prevent leakage. These canoes
retain their form much more truly than one would have ima-
gined; I saw few whose original model had been impaired by
service. On the outside the pieces are so closely fitted as fre-
quently to require close examination before the seams can be
detected. The perfection of workmanship is astonishing to
those who see the tools with which it is effected. They consist
now of nothing more than a piece of iron tied to a stick, and
used as an adze; this, with a gimlet, is all they have, and

200 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

before they obtained their iron tools, they used adzes made of
hard stone and fish-bone/ The construction of the Fiji canoe,
called drua, is described by Williams in great detail. A keel
or bottom board is laid in two or three pieces, carefully scarfed
together. From this the sides are built up, without ribs, in
a number of pieces varying from three to twenty feet. The
edges of these pieces are fastened by ledges, tied together in
the manner already described. A white pitch from the bread-
fruit tree, prepared with an extract from the coco-nut kernel, is
spread uniformly on both edges, and a fine strip of masi laid
between. The binding of sennit with which the boards, or
vanos, as they are called, are stitched together is made tighter
by small wooden wedges inserted between the binding and the
wood, in opposite directions. The ribs seen in the interior of
these canoes are not used to bring the planks into shape, but are
the last things inserted, and are for uniting the deck more
firmly with the body of the canoe. The carpenters in Fiji
constitute a distinct class, and have chiefs of their own. The
Tongan canoes were inferior to those of Fiji in Captain Cook's
time, but they have since adopted Fiji patterns. The Tongans
are better sailors than the Fijians. Wilkes describes a similar
method of building vessels in the Kingsmill Islands, but with
varieties in the details of construction. c Each canoe has six or
eight timbers in its construction ; they are well modelled, built
in frames, and have much sheer. The boards are cut from the
coco-nut tree, from a few inches to six or eight feet long, and
vary from five to seven inches in width. These are arranged as
the planking of a vessel, and very neatly put together, being
sewed with sennit. For the purpose of making them water-tight
they use a slip of pandanus leaf, inserted as our coopers do in
plugging a cask. They have evinced much ingenuity,' he says,
fin attaching the uprights to the flat timbers/ It is difficult,
without the aid of drawings, to understand exactly the pecu-
liarities of this variety of construction, but he says they are
secured so as to have all the motion of a double joint, which gives
them ease, and comparative security in a seaway.

Turning now to the Malay Archipelago, Wallace speaks of
a Malay prahau in which he sailed from Macassar to New
Guinea, a distance of 1,000 miles, and says that similar but

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 201

smaller vessels had not a single nail in them. The largest of
these, he says, are from Macassar, and the Bugi countries of the
Celebes and Boutong. Smaller ones sail from Ternate, Pidore,
East Ceram,"and Garam. The majority of these, he says, have
stitched planks. No. 1268 of my collection is a model of a
vessel employed in those seas. Wallace says that the inhabitants
of Ke Island, west of New Guinea, are the best boat-builders in
the archipelago, and several villages are constantly employed at
the work. The planks here, as in the Polynesian Islands, are all
cut out of the solid wood, with a series of projecting ledges on
their edges in the inside. But here we find an advance upon the
Polynesian system, for the ledges of the planks are pegged to
each other with wooden pegs. The planks, however, are still
fastened to the ribs by means of rattans. The principles of
construction are the same as in those of the Polynesian Islands,
and the main support of the vessel still consists in the planks
and their ledges, the ribs being a subsequent addition ; for he
says that after the first year the rattan-tied ribs are generally
taken out and replaced by new ones, fitted to the planks and
nailed, and the vessel then becomes equal to those of the best
European workmanship. This constitutes a remarkable example
of the persistency with which ancient customs are retained, when
we find each vessel systematically constructed, in the first
instance, upon the old system, and the improvement introduced
in after years. I wonder whether any parallel to this could be
found in a British arsenal. The psychical aspect of the pro-
ceeding seems not altogether un-English.

Extending our researches northward, we find that Dampier, in
1686, mentions, in the Bashee Islands, the use of vessels in
which the planks are fastened with wooden pins. On the
Menan, in Siam, Turpin, in 1771, speaks of long, narrow boats,
in the construction of which neither nails nor iron are employed,
the parts being fastened together with roots and twigs which
withstand the destructive action of the water. They have the
precaution, he says, to insert between the planks a light,
porous wood, which swells by being wet, and prevents the water
from penetrating into the vessel. When they have not this
wood, they rub the chinks, by which the water enters, with clay.
In the India Museum there is a model of a very early form of

202 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

vessel from Burmah, described as a trading vessel. The bottom
is dug out, and the sides formed of planks laced together. A
large stone is employed for an anchor. Here we see that an
inferior description of craft has survived, upon the rivers, in the
midst of a higher civilization which has produced a superior
class of vessel upon the seas.

Turning westward, we have the surf-boat of Madras, called
massoola, which, on account of its elasticity, is still used on the
seashore. Its parts are stitched together in the manner repre-
sented in the model, No. 1267 of my collection. On the Malabar
coast the ships of the Pardesy, who consisted of Arabs, Persians,
and others who have settled in the kingdom of Malabar, are
described by Barbosa in 1514. They build ships, he says, of
200 tons, which have keels like the Portuguese, but have no
nails. They sew their planks with neat cords, very well pitched,
and the timber very good. Ten or twelve of these ships, laden
with goods, sail every year in February for the Bed Sea, some
for Aden and some for Jeddah, the port of Mecca, where they
sell their merchandise to others, who transmit it to Cairo, and
thence to Alexandria. The ships return to Calicut between
August and October of the same year. The earliest description
we have of these vessels in this part of the world, in historic
times, is in the account of the travels of two Mahomedans in the
ninth century. In these travels it is related that there were
people in the Gulf of Oman who cross over to the islands that
produce coco-nuts, taking with them their tools, and make ships
out of it. With the bark they make the cordage to sew the
planks together, and of the leaves they make sails ; and having
thus completed the vessel, they load it with coco-nuts and set
sail. Marco Polo, at the commencement of the fourteenth
century, confirms this, and says, speaking of the ships at Ormuz,
in the Persian Gulf, that they do not use nails, but wooden
pins, and fasten them with threads made of the Indian nut.
These threads endure the force of the water, and are not easily
corrupted thereby. These ships have one mast, one sail, and one
beam, and are covered with but one deck. They are not caulked
with pitch, but with the oil and fat of fishes. When they cross
to India they lose many ships, because the sea is very tem-
pestuous, and they are not strengthened with iron. In the Bed

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 203

Sea, Father Lobo, in 1622, describes the vessels called gelves,
which, he says, are made almost entirely of the coco-nut tree.
The trunk is sawn into planks, the planks are sewn together with
thread which is spun from the bark, and the sails are made of the
leaves stitched tog-ether. They are more convenient, he says,
than other vessels, because they will not split if thrown upon
banks or against rocks.

We have now arrived in the region which is usually regarded
as the cradle of Western civilization, certainly the land in which
Western culture first began to put forth its strong shoots ; and
we must expect to find that the art of shipbuilding advanced in
the same ratio as other trades. But, unlike the Phoenicians,
the Egyptians confined their navigation chiefly to the Nile, and
had an abhorrence of Typhon, as they termed the sea, because it
swallowed up the great river, which, being the chief source of
their prosperity, they regarded as a god.

Here it may be desirable to digress for one moment from the
chain of continuity which we have been following, in order to
say a few words about the most primitive form of vessel used on
the Nile, viz. that mentioned by Isaiah (xviii. 2) as being of Ethio-
pian origin, the vessel of bulrushes to which the mother of
Moses entrusted her infant progeny. What the coco-nut tree was
to the navigators on the eastern seas, the papyrus was to the
Egyptians, and from it every part of the vessel — rope, planks,
masts, and sails- — was constructed. Adverting to the earliest
and simplest of these papyrus vessels, the common use for a
bundle of faggots, for such it was, is not, perhaps, one of those
coincidences which, viewed by the light of modern culture, we
should select as evidence of connexion between distant lands.
And yet there are peculiarities of form which make the bulrush
float of the Egyptians worthy of comparison with those used in
the rivers of Australia.

The Australian float, as represented by a model in the British
Museum, consisted of a bundle of bark and rushes, pointed and
elevated at the ends, and bound round with girdles of the same
material. The only vessel, according to Mr. Calder, used in
Tasmania, on the west coast, is thus described by him in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, iii. 22. ' It was of consider-
able size, and something like a whale-boat, that is, sharp-sterned,

204 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

but a solid structure, and the natives, in their aquatic adventures,
sat on the top of it. It was generally made by the buoyant and
soft, velvety bark of the swamp tea-tree (Melaluca sp.), and consisted
of a multitude of small strips bound together/ Professor Wilson
says that the Californian canoe consists of a mere rude float,
made of rushes, ' in the form of a lashed-up hammock/ A wood-
cut in Sir Gardner Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, No. 399 of his
work, represents three persons making one of these papyrus
floats. It is the baris, or Memphite bark, bound together with
papyrus, spoken of by Lucan, and it is of precisely similar form
to those above described, elevated and pointed at the ends, and
the men are in the act of binding it round with girdles. This is
the kind of boat in which Plutarch describes Isis going in search
of the body of Osiris through the fenny country ; a bark made
of papyrus. Pliny attributes the origin of shipbuilding to these
vessels (vii. 56) ; and speaks (vi. 22) of their crossing the sea and
visiting the Island of Taprobane (Ceylon, according to Sir
G. Wilkinson) ; but it seems probable that he must refer to
a more advanced form of vessel than the mere bulrush float.

The racial connexion between the Australians and the
Egyptians, first put forward by Professor Huxley, has hardly
met with general acceptance as yet ; but, startling as it at first
sight appeared, the more we look into the evidence bearing upon
it, the less improbable, to say the least, it becomes, when viewed
by the light of comparative culture. I have already shown, in
another place,1 how closely some of the Australian weapons
correspond to some of those still used on the Upper Nile, and the
remarkable resemblance here pointed out in a class of vessels
which might well have been used in passing short distances from
island to island of the now submerged fragments of land that are
supposed to have formerly existed in parts of the southern hemi-
sphere, is, at least, worthy of attention amongst other evidence of
the same kind that may be collected, although I fully admit that
it is not of a character to stand alone. I will not exceed my
province by attempting to defend the theory of the Australioid
origin of the Egyptians on physical grounds, preferring to leave
the defence of that theory in the hands of its author, who is so

1 'Primitive Warfare,' pp. 127-30, 148-51, above.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 205

well able to support his own views ; but I may take this oppor-
tunity of commenting' on some remarks made by Professor Owen
in his valuable paper, published in the last number of our Journal,
on the psychical evidence of connexion between them and the
black races of the southern hemisphere. Adverting- to the fresco
painting, in the British Museum, of the ancient Egyptian fowler,
who holds in his hand a stick, which he is in the act of throwing
at a flock of birds, I am inclined to agree with Professor Owen
in thinking there is nothing in its shape to denote that it is
a boomerang. Other figures, however, in Rosellini's Egyptian
Monuments, show the resemblance more clearly, and if these are
not enough, the specimen of the weapon itself in the glass case in
the Egyptian room of the British Museum proves the identity of
the weapon beyond possibility of doubt. I have elsewhere stated
at length,1 that having made several facsimiles of this weapon
from careful measurements, so as to obtain the exact size, form,
and weight of the original, for the purpose of experiment, I found
that it possessed all the properties of the Australian boomerang,
rising in the air, and returning in some cases to within a few
paces of the position from which it was thrown. In fact, it was
easier to obtain the return flight from this weapon than from
many varieties of the Australian boomerang, with which I
experimented at the same time.

But supposing the ancient Egyptian to be ' convicted of the
boomerang ', says the learned professor, ' common sense repudiates
the notion of the necessity of inheritance in relation to such
operations.' Against this I would urge, that the application of
the general quality of common sense to the determination of
questions of psychical connexion, between races so far removed
from us, as the Australians or the predecessors of the earliest
Egyptian kings, is inconsistent with all that we know of the
phenomena of mental evolution in man, seeing that there must
necessarily be many stages of disparity between them and any
intelligent member of the Anthropological Institute to whose
common sense this appeal was made.

If the common sense of the nineteenth century does not
repudiate the fact that the steam engine, the electric telegraph,

1 Address to the Anthropological Department at the Brighton meeting of
the British Association, 1872. Report Brit. Assoc. (London, 1873), p. 161.

206 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

vaccination, free trade, and a thousand other contrivances for
the benefit of our race, have sprung- from special centres, and
have been inherited, or otherwise received, by the highly culti-
vated races to which they have spread in modern times, neither
would the common sense of the Australian or prehistoric Egyp-
tian, after its kind, bar the likelihood of such contrivances as
the boomerang-, the parrying-shield, or the f baris ' having been
handed from one savage people to another in a similar manner.
Wherever two or three concurrent chains of connexion, whether
of race, language, or the arts, can be traced along the same
channel, such evidence is admissible, and is indeed frequently
the only evidence available in dealing with prehistoric times.

The peculiar elevated ends of the papyrus floats are almost
identical in form, but not in structure, with those now used in
parts of India, especially on the Ganges ; and the word junk
is said to be related to juncus, a bulrush. Somewhat similar
rafts, but flat, turned up in front but not behind, and called
tankwa, are described by Lieut. Prideaux as being still used on
Lake Tsana, in Soudan, and they are also used by the Shillooks,
who make them of a wood as light as cork, called ambads
[Anemone mirahilis). A paper by Mr. John Hogg, in the Maga-
zine of ' Natural History (1829, ii. p. 324 ff.), to which my attention
has been kindly drawn by Mr. John Jeremiah, contains some
useful information on the subject of Egyptian papyrus vessels.
Denon describes and figures a very primitive float of this sort,
consisting of a bundle of straw or stalks, pointed and turned
up in front, and says that the inhabitants of the Upper Nile go
up and down the river upon it astride, the legs serving for oars ;
they use also a short double-bladed paddle. It is worthy of
notice that the only other localities, that I am aware of, in which
this double paddle is used, are the Sooloo Archipelago and among
the Esquimaux. Belzoni also describes the same kind of vessel.
Mr. Hogg, in his paper, gives several illustrations of improved
forms of these solid papyrus floats, derived from a mosaic pave-
ment discovered in the Temple of Fortune at Praeneste. From
these it seems that they were bound round with thongs, pointed,
and turned up and over at both ends. But Bruce, in 1790,
describes more particularly the class of vessel used in Abyssinia
in his time, called tankwa, or, as he writes it, tancoa, and says

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 207

that it corresponds exactly to the description of Pliny [Nat.
Hist., xiii. 2, compare v. 9).' His description appears possibly
to indicate that there was a separate line of development of
hollow vessels derived from the flat raft. A piece of acacia
tree was put in the bottom to serve as a keel, to which plants
were joined, being first sewed together, then gathered up at the
ends and stern, and the ends of the plant tied fast there. On
Lake Tsana they are only turned up in front : see above.
Belzoni describes a similar kind of vessel on Lake Moeris,
which seems clearly to be hollow. The outer shell or hulk
was composed of rough pieces of wood, scarcely joined, and
fastened by four other pieces wrapped together by four more
across, which formed the deck ; no tar, no pitch, either inside
or out, and the only preventive against the water coming in
was a kind of weed which had settled in the joints of the wood.
The only other locality, that I know of, in which similar vessels
to these are used, is Formosa, a description of which is given by
Mr. J. Thomson {The Straits of Malacca, Inclo-China, and China,
London, 1875, p. 304), for the sight of which I am indebted to
Mr. W. L. Distant. He says : ' We went ashore in a catamaran,
a sort of raft made of poles of the largest species of bamboo.
These poles are bent by fire, so as to impart a hollow shape to the
raft, and are lashed together with rattan. There is not a nail
used in the whole contrivance.''

But the boats ' woven of ' the papyrus, mentioned by Pliny,
certainly refer to something more complex than the papyrus
bundle above described. Lucan describes them as being sewn
with bands of papyrus, and Herodotus describes them more
fully. This passage has been variously translated by different
authors, but the version given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson is as
follows : — ' they cut planks measuring about two cubits, and
having arranged them like bricks, they build the boat in the
following manner : they fasten the planks round firm long
pegs, and, after this, stretch over the surface a series of girths,
but without any ribs, and the whole is bound within by bands of
papyrus/. The exact meaning of this is obscure; but I would
suggest, that as the ' fastening within'' clearly shows it was
not a solid structure, the more reasonable interpretation of it is
by supposing that the planks, arranged in brick fashion, were

208 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

fastened on the inside by cords, in the manner practised in the
South Sea Islands and elsewhere. What the long pins were is
uncertain; but as Sir Gardner Wilkinson says that the models
found in the tombs show that ribs were used at a time probably
subsequent to this, these pins may have been rudimentary ribs
of some kind, and they also may have been l bound within ' to
the planks in the same manner. It seems not unlikely that
these boats may have also been bound round on the outside to
give them additional strength, after the manner of the papyrus
floats above described.1 With this vessel, which was called
baris, they used a sort of anchor, consisting of a stone with
a hole in it, similar to one on a Burmese vessel, of which a model
is in the India Museum.

The larger class of Egyptian vessels were of superior build,
the planks being fastened with wooden pins and nails, and their
construction somewhat similar to those still used on the Nile.

E-eturning now to the link of the chain to which we have

appended this digression, and carrying our inquiries further

northward into the area of Western civilization, it is to be

expected that we should lose all trace of this primitive mode of

ship-building. The earliest vessels recorded in classical history

were fastened with nails. In Homer's description of the vessel

built by Odysseus, both nails and ribs were employed, and it

had a round or a flat bottom (Smith's Diet.). No trace of

any earlier form of ship has been discovered in Europe, until

we come to the neighbourhood of the North Sea. Here, in the

Nydam Moss, in Slesvic, in 1863, was discovered a large boat,

seventy-seven feet long, ten feet ten inches broad in the middle,

flat at the bottom, but higher and sharper at both ends, having

a prow at both ends, like those described by Tacitus as having

been built by the Suiones, who inhabited this country and

Sweden in ancient times. This vessel, from its associated

remains, has been attributed to the third century a. d. The bottom

consisted of a broad plank, about two feet broad in the middle,

but diminishing in width towards each end. A small keel,

1 Since writing this I have seen the illustration in Sir H. Rawlinson's note
to this passage, in which he gives it as his opinion that this is the meaning
and use to be ascribed to these pins ; and he says that this system is still
employed in Egypt, where they raise an extra bulwark above the gunwale.
Eawlinson, Herodotus (1862), vol. ii. p. 132.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 209

eight inches broad and one deep, was carved on the under side
of the plank, which corresponds to the bottom plank, which, in
Africa and the Polynesian Islands, we have shown to be the
vestige of the dug-out trunk. On to this bottom plank, five
side planks, running the whole length of the vessel, were built,
but they differed from those previously described in over-
lapping, being clinker-built, and attached to each other, not by
strings or wooden pins, but by large iron bolts. The planks,
however, resembled those of the southern hemisphere, in having
clamps or ledges carved out of the solid on the inside; these
ledges were perforated, and their position corresponded to rows
of vertical ribs, to which, like the vessels at Ke Island, and else-
where in the Pacific, they were tied by means of cords passing
through corresponding holes in the ribs. Each rib was carved
out of one piece, and, like those of Ke Island in the Asiatic
Archipelago, could easily have been taken out and replaced by
others after the vessel was completed. In short, the vessel
represented the particular stage of development which may be
described as plank-nailed and rib-tied, or which might be
characterized as having removable ribs ; differing in this respect
from the more advanced system of modern times, in which the
ribs, together with the keel, form a framework to which the
planks are afterwards bent and fastened.

This mode of fastening the ribs to ledges carved out of the
planking, Mr. Engelhardt, to whom we are indebted for the
accurate drawings and description of this vessel,1 remarks, is
a most surprising fact, considering that the people who con-
structed the boat are proved by the associated remains to have
been not only familiar with the use of iron, but to have been
able to produce damascened sword-blades. But this fact,
which, taken by itself, has been justly described as surprising,
analogy leads us to account for, by supposing these particular
parts of the vessel to have been survivals from a universally
prevalent primitive mode of fastening, the nearest southern
representative of which, at the present time, is to be found in
the Red Sea and adjoining oceans. Nor can there be any reason
to doubt, I think, that this mode of constructing vessels may
have been used in the intervening countries, which have been

1 Denmark in the Early Iron Age, by Conrad Engelhardt (London, 1866), p. 31.
p.r. P

210 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

the scene of the rise of Western civilization since the earliest
times, but which have now lost all trace of the most primitive
phases of the art of ship-building.

Mr. Engelhardt, however, traces a connexion between this
ancient vessel, found in the Nydam Moss, and the Northland
boats now used on the coast of Norway and the Shetland Isles,
the peculiar rowlocks of which, and also the clincher-nails by
which the sides are fastened, correspond very closely to those of
the Nydam boat. Here also, and in Finland and Lapland, we
find survivals of a still earlier mode of ship-building, corre-
sponding to the more primitive plank-stitched vessels, before
described, in so many places in the southern hemisphere.
Regnard, in 1681, describes the Finland boats as being twelve
feet long and three broad. They are made of fir, and fastened
together with the sinew of the reindeer ; this makes them,
he says, so light that one man can carry one on his shoulders ;
others are fastened together with thread made of hemp, rubbed
with glue, and their cords are of birch bark or the root of the
fir. Outhier, in 1736, confirms this account of the manner in
which they are sewn together, and says that it renders them
very flexible, and suitable for passing cataracts, on account of
their lightness, and because they do not break when they are
cast against a rock. The Lapland sledge called pulea is also
described by Regnard as being of the same construction — boat-
shaped, and the parts sewn together with the sinew of the rein-
deer, without a single nail. I have not as yet been able to trace
this mode of fastening vessels continuously in Russia ; but Bell,
in 1719, says that the long, flat-bottomed barks used on the
Volga for carrying salt have not a single iron nail in their whole
fabric; and Atkinson describes vessels on the Tchoussowaia
which are built without nails, but these are fastened with wooden
pins.

3. Bark canoes.
The use of bark for canoes might have been suggested
by the hollowed trunk; but, on the other hand, we find this
material employed in Australia, where the hollowed trunk is
not in general use. Bark is employed for a variety of pur-
poses, such as clothing, materials for huts, and so forth. Some
of the Australian shields are constructed of the bark of

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 211

trees. The simplest form of canoe in Australia consists, as
already mentioned (p. 203), of -a mere bundle of reeds and bark
pointed at the ends. It is possible that the use of large pieces
of bark in this manner may have suggested the employment
of the bark alone. Belzoni mentions crossing to the island of
Elephantine, on the Nile, in a ferry-boat which was made of
branches of palm trees, fastened together with cords, and
covered on the outside with a mat pitched all over. The solid
papyrus boats represented on the pavement at Praeneste, before
mentioned, have evidently some other substance on the outside
of them ; and Bruce imagines that the junks of the Red Sea were
of papyrus, covered with leather.1 The outer covering would pre-
vent the water from soaking into the bundle of sticks, and thus
rendering it less buoyant. Bark, if used in the same manner, would
serve a like purpose, and thus suggest its use for canoe-building.
Otherwise I am unable to conceive any way in which bark canoes
can have originated, except by imitation of the dug-out canoe.

For crossing rivers, the Australian savage simply goes to the
nearest stringy-bark tree, chops a circle round the tree at the
foot, and another seven or eight feet higher, makes a longi-
tudinal cut on each side, and strips off bark enough by this
means to make two canoes. If he is only going to cross the
river by himself, he simply ties the bark together at the ends,
paddles across, and abandons the piece of bark on the other
side, knowing that he can easily provide another. If it is to
carry another besides himself, he stops up the tied ends with
clay; but if it is to be permanently employed, he sews up the
ends more carefully, and keeps it in shape by cross-pieces,
thereby producing a vessel which closely resembles the bark canoe
of North America (Wood, Nat. Hist, of Man, ii. 103). I have not
been able to trace the use of the bark canoe further north than
Australia on this side of the world, probably owing to its being
ill adapted for sea navigation ; nor do I find representatives of
it in any part of Europe or Africa, although bark is extensively
used, in the Polynesian Islands and elsewhere, for other purposes.

It is the two continents of America which must be regarded
as the home of the bark canoe.

1 ' On Vessels of Papyrus,' by John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. ; Magazine of
Nat. Hist., vol. ii (1829), pp. 324-32 : cf. p. 206, above.

P 2

212 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

The Fuegian canoe has been described by Wilkes, Pritchard,
and others. It is sewn with shreds of whalebone, sealskin, and
twigs, and supported by a number of stretchers lashed to the
gunwale ; the joints are stopped with rushes, and, without,
smeared with resin. In Guiana the canoe is made of the bark
of the purple-heart tree, stripped off and tied together at the
ends. The ends are stopped with clay, as with the Australians.
This mode of caulking is not very effectual, however, and the
water is sure to come in sooner or later.

The nature of the material does not admit of much variety
in the construction ; suffice it to say that it is in general use in
North America, up to the Esquimaux frontier. Its value in
these regions consists in the facility with which it is taken out
of the water and carried over the numerous rapids that prevail
in the North American rivers. The Algonquins were famous
for the construction of them. Some carry only two people, but
the canot de maitre was thirty-six feet in length, and required
fourteen paddlers. Kalm, in 1747, gives a detailed account of
the construction of them on the Hudson river, and Lahontan,
in 1684, gives an equally detailed description of those used in
Canada. The bark is peeled off the tree by means of hot water.
They are very fragile, and every day some hole in the bottom
has to be stopped with gum.

Mr. T. G. B. Lloyd, in an excellent paper descriptive of the
Beothucs of Newfoundland, published in Joum. Anthrop. Inst.
(vol. iv. pp. 26-8), has described the remarkable bark canoe of these
people. Its form is different from any other canoe of this or any
other region that I have heard of, the line of the gunwale rising in
the middle, as well as at the ends, and the vessel being V-shaped in
section, with a straight wooden keel at the bottom. Its form is so
singular, that the only idea of continuity which I can set up for it is,
that it must have been copied from some European child's paper
boat, capable, by a single additional fold, of being converted into
a cocked hat ; the central pyramidal portion of the paper boat
having given the form to the pyramidal sides of the Beothuc vessel.
If this be rejected, then its history has yet to be told, for no native
tribe ever employed such a peculiar form unless by inheritance.

Nos. 1248 and 1249 of my collection are South American bark
canoes; Nos. 1250 to 1252 are bark canoes from North America.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 213

4. Canoes of Wicker and Skin.

As we approach the Arctic regions, the dug-out and bark canoes
are replaced by canoes of skin and wicker. As we have already
seen, in the case of the bow, and other arts of savages, vegetable
materials supply the wants of man in southern and equatorial
regions, whilst animal materials supply their place in the north.

The origin of skin coverings has been already suggested when
speaking of bark canoes. The accidental dropping of a skin
bottle into the water might suggest the use of such vessels as'
a means of recovering the harpoon, which, as I have already
shown elsewhere, was almost universally used for fishing in the
earliest stages of culture. The Esquimaux lives with the
harpoon and its attached bladder almost continually by his side.
The Esquimaux kayak, Nos. 1253 and 1254 of my collection,
in which he traverses the ocean, although admirable in its work-
manship, and, like all the works of the Esquimaux, ingenious in
construction, is in principle nothing more than a large, pointed
bladder, similar to that which is lashed to the harpoon at its
side ; the man in this case occupying the opening which, in the
bladder, is filled by the wooden pin that serves for a cork.

This is, I believe, a very primitive form of vessel, although
there can be no doubt that many links in the history of its
development have been lost. Unlike the dug-out canoe, such
a fragile contrivance as the wicker canoe perishes quickly, and no
direct evidence of its ancestry can be traced at the present time.
It is only by means of survivals that we can build up the past
history of its development; and these are, for the most part,
wanting.

The skin of an animal, flayed off the body with but one incision,
served, as I have elsewhere shown, a variety of purposes : from
it the bellows was derived, the bagpipes, water-vessels, and
pouches of various kinds; and, filled with air, it served the
purpose of a float. Steinitz, in his History of the Ship, gives an
illustration of an inflated ox skin, which in India is used to
cross rivers ; the owner riding upon the back of the animal and
paddling with his hands, as if it had been a living ox.

In the Assyrian sculptures there are numerous illustrations
representing men floating upon skins of this kind, which they

214 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

clasp with the left hand, like the tree trunks, already mentioned,
that are used by the American Indians, and swim with the
right. Layard says this manner of crossing rivers is still prac-
tised in Mesopotamia. He also describes the raft, composed of
a number of such floats, made of the skins of sheep flayed off
with as few incisions as possible ; a square framework of poplar
beams is placed over a number of these, and tied together with
osier and other twigs. The mouths of the sheep-skins are placed
upwards, so that they can be opened and refilled by the raft-men.
On these rafts the merchandise is floated down the river to
Bagdad; the materials are then disposed of and the skins
packed on mules, to return for another voyage. On the Nile
similar rafts are used, the skins being supplanted by earthen pots,
which, like the skins on the Euphrates, serve only a temporary
purpose, and after the voyage down the river are disposed of in
the bazaars.

This mode of floating upon skins I should conjecture to be of
northern origin, and to be practised chiefly by nomadic races ;
but we find it employed on the Morbeya, in Morocco, by the
Moors, who no doubt had it from the East. It is thus described
by Lempriere, in 1789. A raft is formed of eight sheep-skins
filled with air, and tied together with small cords ; a few slender
poles are laid over them, to which they are fastened, and that is
the only means used at Buluane to convey travellers, with their
baggage, over the river. As soon as the raft is loaded, a man
strips, jumps into the water, and swims with one hand, whilst
he pulls the raft after him with the other ; another swims and
pushes behind. This reminds us of the custom of the Gran
Chaco Indians of South America, who, in crossing rivers, use
a square boat or tub of bull's hide, called pelota. It is attached
by a rope to the tail of a horse, which swims in front ; or the rope
is taken in the mouth of an expert swimmer.

I have not traced the distribution of these rafts of inflated
skins as continuously as, I have no doubt, they might be traced
amongst nomadic and pastoral races, moving with their flocks
and herds, the skins of which would be employed in this way ;
nor have I been able to trace the connexion which, I have no
doubt, existed between the inflated skin and the open c curragh '
of wicker covered with skins. "Where one is found, the other is

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 215

often found with it. Herodotus describes the boats used by the
people who came down the river to Babylon, and says they are
constructed in Armenia, and in the parts above Assyria, thereby
connecting them with the north. ' The ribs of these vessels/ he
says, ' are formed of willow boughs and branches, and covered
externally with skin. They are round, like a shield, there being
no distinction between head and stern. They line the bottom
with reeds and straw, and taking on board merchandise, chiefly
palm wine, float down the stream. The boats have two oars,
one to each man : one pulls and the other pushes. They are o£
different dimensions, some having a single ass on board and
others several. On their arrival at Babylon the boatmen dis-
pose of their goods, and offer for sale the ribs and straw; they
then load the asses with the skins, and return with them to
Armenia, where they construct new boats J — just as is now
done with the inflated skins of the rafts at Baghdad.

In the Pictorial Bible an illustration is given from the
Sassanian sculptures at Takht-i-Bostan of several of these round
vessels, probably of wicker, covered with skins. In one of these
the principal figure carries a composite bow, which, as I have
elsewhere shown, is of northern origin. Mr. Layard discovered
in Nimroud a sculpture in which one of these boats is repre-
sented. It is round, like those described by Herodotus; back
and stern alike; carrying two people, one of whom pulls and
the other pushes; and in the same sculpture are represented
men swimming on the inflated sheep-skins. He says that these
same round vessels are still used at Baghdad, built of boughs
and timber covered with skins, over which bitumen is smeared
to render it more water-tight. [Hamilton] also speaks of the
same vessels (of reeds and bitumen) on the Euphrates, at the
commencement of the eighteenth century.

On the Cavery, in Mysore, Buchanan, in 1800, describes
ferry-boats that are called donies, which are circular baskets
covered with leather; but whether these vessels, like the com-
posite bow used in the same region, can be traced to a northern
origin I have not the means of determining, nor have I as yet
sufficient materials to enable me to ascertain whether such
vessels are employed in the north of Asia at the present time.
"What the inflated skin is to these circular vessels, the kayak is

216 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

to the baidar of the Esquimaux. Throughout the whole region
occupied by this race, these two kinds of vessels are used,
differing only in minute varieties of detail in the different
localities. According to Dr. King, whose valuable paper, fOn
the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux/ was published in the
first volume of the Journal of the Ethnological Society (1848), the
varieties of the kayak in the different localities consist merely in
the elevation and shape of the rim of the hole in which the
man sits. In Prince William Sound, on the N W. coast, the
kayak is frequently built with two or three holes to contain
two or three men. The bow has two beaks, one of which turns
up, according to Captain Cook, like the head of a violin, as
represented in No. 1254 of my collection. This is also used in
the Aleutian Isles. The meaning of this double beak I have
not been able to ascertain. The baiclar used on this coast has
also a double beak, as represented in No. 1255 of my collection.

In the British Museum there is a kayak with a single opening,
from Behring Straits, which differs but little from another in
the same museum from Greenland ; the kayak of Greenland has
a knob of ivory at each end to protect the sharp point. The
laidar is used at Ochotsk and Kamtschatka, on the Asiatic coast^
and all along the northern coast of America, eastward from
Behring Strait. Models of both baidar and kayak are in the
British Museum, from Kotzebue Sound. In Frobisher Strait,
Frobisher, in 1577, says the boats are of two kinds of leather
stretched on frames, the greater sort open, and carrying sixteen
or twenty people (the baidar), and the lesser, to carry one many
covered over, except in one place where the man sits (the kayak).
In Hudson's Straits and Greenland, where the larger vessels are
called oomiak, they are flat-sided and flat-bottomed, about three
feet high, and nearly square at the bow and stern, whereas this
sort on the north-west coast is sometimes pointed at bow and
stern. Kerguelen, in 1767, mentions both kinds in Greenland;
and Kalm, in 1747, speaks of both, though not from personal
observation, on the coast of Labrador. The Esquimaux canoe
has been known to have drifted from Greenland across the north
of Scotland, and has been picked up, with the man still alive in
it, on the coast of Aberdeen (Wilson).

In Britain the coracle of osier, covered with skin, is men-

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 217

tioned by Caesar, and in Britain, Gaul, and Italy by Lucan
(a.d. 39-65). In Scotland, Bellenden, in the sixteenth
century, speaks of the currock of wands, covered with bulls'
hide, as being in use in the sixteenth century, and its repre-
sentative is still used in the west of Ireland. Sir William
Wilde says that, under the name of curraff/i, it is still made of
leather, stretched over a wooden frame, on the Boyne, and in
Arran, on the west coast, of light timber, covered with painted
canvas, which has superseded the use of leather. I have
seen these vessels at Dingle, on the south-west coast, where
they go by the name of nevog ; they are there 23 feet in
length by 4 in width, and 1 ft. 9 inches deep, made of
laths, and covered with painted canvas; they are used, from
Valentia, along the west coast as far as Galway . In the south
they are larger than in the north, where they are called
curraghs, and a single man can carry one on his back, as
the ancient Briton did his coracle. Their continuance is
caused by their cheapness, costing only £6 when new. Here
also they were, until recently, constructed of leather. They
have a small triangular sail, and, like the most ancient forms
of vessels, they are guided, when sailing, by means of oars, one
on each side.

5. Rafts.

The trunks of trees, united by mutual attraction, as they
floated down the stream, would suggest the idea of a raft. The
women of Australia use rafts made of layers of reeds, from which
they dive to obtain mussel-shells. In New Guinea the catamaran,
or small raft formed of three planks lashed together with rattan,
is the commonest vessel used. Others are larger, containing ten
or twelve persons, and consist of three logs lashed together in
five places, the centre log being the longest, and projecting at
both ends.

This is exactly like the catamaran used on the coast of
Madras, a model of one of which is in the Indian Museum ; they
are also used on the Ganges, and in the Asiatic isles. At
Manilla they are known by the name of saraboas; but the
perfection of raft navigation is on the coast of Peru. Ulloa, in
1735, describes the balzas used on the Guayaquil, in Ecuador,
and on the coast as far south as Paita. They are called by the

218 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

Indians of the Guayaquil jungadas, and by the Darien Indians
puero. They are made of a wood so light that a boy can
easily carry a log 1 foot in diameter and 3 or 4 yards long.
They are always made of an odd number of beams, like the
New Guinea and Indian rafts, the longest and thickest in the
centre, and the others lashed on each side. Some are 70 ft.
in length and 20 broad. When sailing, they are guided
by a system of planks, called guaras, which are shoved
down between the beams in different parts of the raft as they
are wanted, the breadth of the plank being in the direction of
the lines of the timbers. By means of these they are able to
sail near the wind, and to luff up, bear away, and tack at
pleasure. When a guar a is put down in the fore part of the
raft, it luffs up, and when in the hinder part, it bears away.
This system of steering, he says, the Indians have learnt em-
pirically, ' their uncultivated minds never having examined into
the rationale of the thing/

It was one of these vessels which Bartolomew Ruiz, pilot of
the second expedition for the discovery of Peru, met with ; and
which so astonished the sailors, who had never before seen any
vessel on the coast of America provided with a sail. Condamine
speaks of the rafts in 1743, on the Chinchipe, in Peru. They
are also used on the coast of Brazil, where they are also called
jungadas, from which locality there is a model of one in the
British Museum, and another in the Christy collection. Pro-
fessor Wilson thinks it was by means of these vessels, driven off
the coast of America westward, that the Polynesian and Malay
islands were peopled ; and this brings us to the consideration of
the peculiar class of vessel which is distributed over a continuous
area in the Pacific and adjoining seas, viz. the outrigger canoe,
which, I shall endeavour to show, was derived from the raft.

6. Outrigger-canoes.

The sailing properties of the balza, or any other similar raft,
must have been greatly impeded by the resistance offered to the
water by the ends of its numerous beams. In order to diminish
the resistance, the obvious remedy was to use only two beams,
placed parallel to each other at a distance apart, with a platform
laid on cross-poles between them.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 219

Of this kind we find a vessel used by the Tasmanians, and
described by Mr. Bonwick, on the authority of Lieut. Jeffreys.
The natives, he says, would select two good stems of trees and
place them parallel to each other, but a couple of yards apart ;
cross-pieces of small size were laid on these, and secured to the
trees by scraps of tough bark. A stronger cross-timber, of
greater thickness, was laid across the centre, and the whole was
then covered by wicker-work. Such a float would be thirty feet
long, and would hold from six to ten persons (Herbert Spencer,
Descriptive Sociology (London, 1874), No. 3, Table V).

In Fiji, Williams describes a kind of vessel called tilatoka,
a raised platform, floating on two logs, which must evidently be
a vessel of the same description as that used in Tasmania.

From these two logs were derived the double canoe on the one
hand, and the canoe with the outrigger on the other.

A link between the catamaran and the outrigger canoe is
seen in a model in the India Museum, from Madras. It con-
sists of the usual catamaran, already described, of three beams
lashed together, the longest being in the centre, across which are
attached, their ends extending on one side, long outrigger poles,
to the extremities of which, parallel, and at some distance from
the catamaran, is fastened. an outrigger log, of smaller size and
length, pointed at both ends, and boat-shaped, exactly like those
used with the outrigger canoes to be hereafter described. When
the art of hollowing out canoes was introduced, then one canoe
and one log, or two canoes, were employed, as the case might be.
This I consider to be a more natural sequence than to suppose the
outrigger invented as a means of steadying the dug-out canoe.

The outrigger canoe, and its accompanying double canoe, is
used over the whole of the Polynesian and Asiatic islands —
from Easter Island on the east, to Ceylon and the Andamans on
the west. Their varieties are also, in some cases, continuous ;
and I will endeavour to trace the distribution of each, com-
mencing with the canoe with the single outrigger.

Towards the eastern and northern extremities of the Poly-
nesian'Islands we find that the canoes have a single outrigger,
and that the ends of the outrigger poles are attached directly
to the outrigger log, instead of being connected with it by
upright supports, as is the case elsewhere. As the outrigger log

220 EAULY MODES OF NAVIGATION

is on a lower level than the line of the gunwales of the canoe,
across which the other ends of the outrigger poles are lashed,
they are generally curved downwards to meet the outrigger.

This is the form described by La Perouse in Easter Island.
It is the same in the drawings of canoes from Marquesas ; also in
the one, figured by Wilkes, from Wytoohee or Disappointment
Isle, in the Low Archipelago ; and in the one from Tahiti,
Society Isles ; also in those of the Sandwich Isles and the Kings-
mill Isles ; and it reappears again on the extreme west of the
group in Ceylon, No. 1265 of my collection.

But whilst this peculiarity appears to be constant in the
above-mentioned region, the form of the body of the canoe
differs in each group of islands. In the Marquesas the bow
turns up very much, in the Sandwich Islands only slightly
(No. 1264) ; in Disappointment Isle there is a projecting part
before and behind, by which they step into it; in Tahiti they
have a similar projection over the stern only, which is used for
a similar purpose.

To the westward of these, in a group extending over the
centre of the region in question, all the outriggers that I have
seen described, either by means of models or drawings, have
upright supports on the upper side, and on these the outrigger
poles rest, so as to be on the level of the line of the gunwales.
This is the case in Nuie or Savage Island; in Samoa (No. 1262) ;
in the Caroline Isles ; in Bowditch Island, one of the Union
group; in Tonga and Fiji; in New Guinea; in the Louisiade
Archipelago, and in North Australia.

Another peculiarity in this central region deserves notice.
The ends of the canoe are covered with a deck extending over
about one-third of its length fore and aft, and on this deck
there is a row of upright pegs, carved out of the same piece as
the deck, and running down the centre of it. Each peg is sur-
mounted by a white Cypraea ovula shell tied on. The origin
and meaning of this custom is unknown, but it was probably
adopted originally as insignia of the rank of the owner. Its
distribution is limited to a group of islands lying between about
the 10th and 20th parallel of south latitude, and 170° and 180°
west longitude. Cook, in 1773, speaks of it in the Friendly
Isles ; and Wilkes, in 1838, mentions it in Samoa, Fiji, and

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 221

Bowditch Island. The canoes of the Solomon Isles and other
islands are, however, also ornamented with shells in different parts.

The canoe with the single outrigger is also used in [Garret
Dennis Island], which is described by Dampier in 1686 ; in the
Ladrones, by Pigafetta, 1519 ; in the Pelew Islands ; in Borneo ;
in Ceylon ; in the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.

In Kingsmill and the Caroline Islands, to the north, the
outrigger is somewhat smaller than elsewhere, its length not
exceeding one-third o£ the length of the canoe. In the adjoining
groups of the Kingsmill and Ladrone Islands we have a variety
of this vessel in which the canoe, on the outrigger side, is nearly
flat, having a belly only on the opposite side. This is described
by Wilkes in 1838, and Dampier in 1686.

The double canoe represents a variety in which both logs of
the double-logged raft have developed into canoes. The two
canoes are placed side by side, at a little distance apart, and
transverse spars are lashed across the gunwales of both ; a platform
being built upon the cross spars ; No. 1266 of my collection.

Double canoes of this kind were used in New Zealand formerly,
also in New Caledonia. Mr. Baines mentions it in North
Australia, but I am not aware that it is used in New Guinea.
Cook speaks of it in the Friendly Isles, Wilkes in Fiji. It was
formerly used in Samoa, but Wilkes says it has been discon-
tinued, and the single outrigger only is now used ; in Tahiti ; in
the Low Archipelago, the inhabitants of which group are very
expert sailors, steering by the stars, and seldom making any
material error ; in the Sandwich Isles ; also in Ceylon, where it
is called a paddy boat ; in Burmah and in some of the Indian
rivers ; at Mosapore, where it goes by the name of langardy ;
and in Cochin, on the southern portion of the Malabar coast,
where it is employed as a ferry-boat. It also appears, by a
model in the India Museum, that it is used as high up as Patna,
on the Ganges.

In Fiji we find a connecting link between the double canoe
and the canoe with the single outrigger. Here the outrigger
consists of a boat, similar in construction to the large one to
which it is attached, but smaller, and connected with the platform
between them by upright supports.

Contrivances for sailing near the wind with the single out-

222 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

rigger canoe have led to the introduction of several other
varieties of this class of vessel. It is necessary that the out-
rigger should always be on the windward side. The outrigger
acts as a weight on the windward side, to prevent the narrow
canoe from being blown over on the opposite side. "When it
blows very hard, the men run out on to the outrigger, to give it
the additional weight of their bodies. Wilkes says that when-
ever the outrigger gets to the leeward side, there is almost invari-
ably an upset. The outrigger probably is pressed too deeply into
the water, and meeting with too much resistance, breaks the poles.
To meet this difficulty both the canoe and outrigger are, in some
parts, made pointed at both ends. When they wish to tack,
instead of luffing and coming about, they bear away, until the
vessel gets on the opposite quarter, and then, by shifting the
sail, they sail away again stern first. This system is pursued in
Fiji, in parts of New Guinea, and northward, in Kingsmill
Islands (Wilkes).

Another mode of meeting this difficulty consists in having
two outriggers, one on each side. This is employed in the
Louisiade Archipelago (No. 1260), in parts of New Guinea, and
to the north, in the Sooloo Archipelago. Yet another method
remains to be described. In Samoa the canoes are built with
bow and stern, and the outrigger is pointed towards the fore
part only. As these vessels can only sail one way, the outrigger,
in tacking, must necessarily be sometimes on the leeward side ;
to meet this, they rig out a platform corresponding to the out-
rigger platform on the opposite side ; this, for distinction's sake,
we may term a weather platfoi'm. It has no outrigger log, nor
does it touch the water, but when the wind blows so heavily as
to press the outrigger down on the lee side, they run out on the
weather platform, and counterbalance the effect of the wind by
their weight. This contrivance is used in some parts of New
Guinea, where, it may be observed, the varieties of the outrigger
canoe are more numerous than in most of the other islands. It
is also used in the Solomon Isles, where the weather platform is
of the same width as the outrigger platform ; and probably in
some of the other islands to the north.

Finally we have, in the Asiatic Archipelago, a contrivance
which may be said to be derived partly from the double out-

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 223

rigger, and partly from the weather platform last described.
In proportion as the simple dug-out canoe began to be converted
into a built-up vessel, and to acquire greater beam, they began
to depend less and less on the support of the outrigger. The
double outrigger necessarily presented considerable resistance
to the water, but the vessel was still too narrow to sail by itself.
A weather platform had, however, been found sufficient to
balance the vessel on one side, and the next step was to knock off
the outrigger log on the other side, thereby converting the
outrigger platform into a weather platform ; the two platforms
projecting one on each side of the vessel, on the level of the
gunwales, without touching the water, and thereby acting on
the principle of the balancing-pole of a tight-rope dancer, whilst
the resistance to the water was by this means confined to that
of the hull of the vessel itself. These double weather-platform
boats were also found more convenient in inland waters, in the
canals in Manilla, and elsewhere.

De Guignes, in 1796, mentions a contrivance of this sort in
the Philippines, but from the account, it is not quite clear
whether he refers to a double weather platform, or a vessel with
an outrigger and a weather platform. He says that the boats at
Manilla are very sharply built, and furnished with yards, which
serve as balances, on the windward side of which, when the
wind blows hard, the sailors place themselves to counterpoise
the effect of the wind on the sails. This contrivance does not,
however, always ensure safety, for at times the bamboos which
form the balance break, in which case the boat founders and
the crew are lost. Dampier, however, in 1686, clearly speaks
of the double weather platform at Manilla. He says that the
difference between these Manilla boats and those at Guam, in
the Ladrones, is that, whereas at Guam there is a little boat,
fastened to the outriggers, that lies in the water, the beams or
bamboos here are fastened transverse- wise to the outlayers on
each side, and touch not the water like boats, but one, three, or
four feet above the water, and serve for the canoe-men to sit
and row and paddle upon. He says, that when the vessel
reels, the ends of the platform dip into the water, and the
vessel rights itself. Still further north, at Rangoon, on the
Irrawaddy, we find the same contrivance described by Symes in

224 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

1795. He says that the boats are long- and narrow, sixty feet in
length, and not more than twelve in the widest place; they
require a good deal of ballast, and would have been in constant
danger of upsetting, had they not been provided with outriggers
which, composed of thin boards, or oftener of buoyant bamboos,
make a platform that extends horizontally six or seven feet on
the outside of the boat from stem to stern. Thus secure, he
says, the vessel can incline no further than until the platform
touches the surface of the water, when she immediately rights ;
on this stage the boatmen ply their oars.

This constitutes one out of many points of evidence that might
be mentioned, serving to show that the arts and culture of the
Burmese, and of all this part of Asia, have been derived from the
Malay Archipelago more probably than the reverse.

The outrigger canoe itself has never, I believe, been known
on the Irrawaddy within the memory of man, but, as already
seen, it is used in the Nicobar and Andaman Isles and on the
coast to the south.

These outriggers, or balancing platforms, appear gradually to
have diminished in size as the vessel increased in beam, and
there can be little doubt that the rude stages or balconies out-
side the gunwales represented in the models of many of the
larger vessels used in these seas are the last vestiges of the
outrigger. No. 1278 of my collection is an example of this.

7. Rudders, Sails, and other Contrivances.
All the various items of evidence which I have collected, and
endeavoured to elucidate by means of survivals, whether in rela-
tion to modes of navigation or other branches of industry, appear
to me to tend towards establishing a gradual development of
culture as we advance northward. Although Buddhism and
its concomitant civilization may have come from the north,
there has been an earlier and prehistoric flow of culture in the
opposite direction — northward — from the primaeval and now
submerged cradle of the human family in the southern hemi-
sphere. This, I venture to think, will establish itself more and
more clearly, in proportion as we divest ourselves of the numer-
ous errors which have arisen from our acceptance of the Noachian
deluge as a universal catastrophe.

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 225

As human culture developed northward from the equator
toward the 40th parallel of latitude, civilization began to bud
out in Egypt, India, and China, and a great highway of nations
was established by means of ships along the southern margin of
the land, from China to the Red Sea.

Along this ocean highway may be traced many connexions
in ship forms which have survived from the earliest times.
The oeulus, which, on the sacred boats of the Egyptians, repre-
sented the eye of Osiris guiding the mummy of the departed
across the sacred lake, is still seen eastward — in India and China
— converted into an ornamental device, whilst westward it lived
through the period of the Roman and Grecian biremes and
triremes, and has survived to this day on the Maltese rowing-
boats and the xebecque of Calabria, or has been converted into
a hawser-hole in modern European craft. The function of the
rudder — which in the primitive vessels of the southern world
is still performed by the paddlers, whilst paddling with their
faces to the prow — was confided, as sails began to be introduced,
to the rearmost oars. In some of the Egyptian sculptures
the three hindermost rowers on each side are seen steering
the vessel with their oars. Ultimately one greatly developed
oar on each side of the stern performed this duty ; the loom of
which was attached to an upright beam on the deck, as is still
the case in some parts of India. In some of the larger Malay
praltuus there are openings or windows in the stern, considerably
below the deck, by which the steersmen have access to two
large rudders, one on each side ; each rudder being the vestige of
a side oar.

Throughout the Polynesian Islands the steering is performed
with either one or two greatly developed paddles. Both in the
rudder of the Egyptian sculptures and in the gubernamdum of the
Roman vessels, we see the transition from the large double oar,
one on each side, to the single oar at the stern. The ship of
Ptolemaeus Philopator had four rudders, each thirty cubits in
length (Smith's Diet., s. v. f Navis '). The Chinese and Japanese
rudder is but a modification of the oar, worked through large holes
in the stern of the vessel ; which large holes, in the case of the
Japanese, owe their preservation to the orders of the Tycoon, who
caused them to be retained in all his vessels, in order to prevent

P.R. Q

226 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

his subjects from venturing far to sea. The buccina, or shell
trumpet, which is used especially on board all canoes in the
Pacific, from the coast of Peru to Ceylon, is represented,
together with the gubemaculum, in the hands of Tritons in
Roman sculptures (Smith's Diet., s. v. c Navis '), and the shell form
of it was preserved in its metallic representatives.

The sail, in its simplest form, consists of a triangular mat,
with bamboos lashed to the two longer sides. In New Guinea
and some of the other islands, this sail, which is here seen in its
simplest form, is simply put up on deck, with the apex down-
wards and the broad end up, and kept up by stays fore and aft.
When a separate mast was introduced, this sail was hauled up
by a halyard attached to one of the bamboos, at the distance
of about one-fifth of its length from the broad end, the apex
of the bamboo-edged mat being fastened forward by means of
a tack. By taking away the lower bamboo the sail became the
lateen sail of the Malay pirate proa, the singular resemblance
of which to that of the Maltese galley of the eighteenth century
(a resemblance shared by all other parts of the two vessels) may
be seen by two models placed side by side in the Royal United
Service Institution. Professor Wilson observes that the use of
the sail appears to be almost unknown on either continent of
America, and the surprise of the Spaniards on first seeing one
used on board a Peruvian balza arose from this known peculiarity
of early American navigation (p. 218). Lahontan, however, in
1684, says that the Canadian bark canoes, though usually pro-
pelled by paddles, sometimes carried a small sail. He does not,
however, say whether the knowledge of these has been derived
from Europeans. Mr. Lloyd also mentions small sails used
with bark canoes in Newfoundland.

The crows-nest, which in the Egyptian vessels served to
contain a slinger or an archer at the top of the mast, and which
is also represented in the Assyrian sculptures, was still used
for the same purpose in Europe in the fifteenth century, was
modified in the sixteenth century, and became the mast-head so
well known to midshipmen in our own time. The two raised
platforms, which in the Egyptian vessels served to contain the
man with the fathoming pole in the fore part, and the steersman
behind, became the prora and the pupjois of the Romans, and

EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION 227

the forecastle and poop of modern European vessels. The aplustre,
which, in the form of a lotus, ornamented the stern of the
Egyptian war-craft, gave the form to the aplustre of the Greeks
and Romans, and may still be seen on the stern of the Burmese
war-boats at the present time.

All these numerous examples serve to show that where civil-
ization has advanced the forms have been gradually changed ;
where, on the other hand, it has not advanced, they have
remained unchanged. Sir Gardner Wilkinson and others have
pointed out the striking resemblance between the boats of the
ancient Egyptians and those of modern India. ' The form of
the stern, the principle and construction of the rudder, the
cabins, the square sail, the copper eye on each side of the head,
the line of small squares at the side, like false windows, and the
shape of the oars of boats used on the Ganges, forcibly call to
mind/ he says, f those of the Nile, represented in the paintings
of the Theban tombs/ "We have also seen (p. 214) that the inflated
sheep-skin still serves to transport the Mesopotamian peasant
across the Euphrates, as it did when Nimroud was a thriving
city. The skin and wicker tub-shaped vessels still float down
the Euphrates with their cargoes to Baghdad, are broken up,
and the skins carried up the river again on mules, as they were
in the time of Herodotus, upwards of 2,000 years ago. What
is there to prevent our believing that the primitive vessels
which we have been describing in the southern hemisphere, the
representatives of some of which have been discovered in river
deposits of the stone age in Europe, may have been in use in
the countries in which they are now found, as long, and longer —
far longer ?

What reason is there to doubt that the rude bark-float of the
Australian, the Tasmanian, and the Ethiopian ; the catamaran
of the Papuan ; the dug-out of the New Zealander ; the built-up
canoe of the Samoan ; and the improved ribbed vessel of the
Ke islander, are survivals representing successive stages in the
development of the art of ship-building, not lapses to ruder
methods of construction as the result of degradation ; that
each stage supplies us with examples of what was at one time
the perfection of the art, inconceivable ages ago ? Some, as we

228 EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION

have seen, especially the more primitive kinds, spread nearly
all over the world, whilst others had a more limited area of
distribution. Taken together, they enable us to trace back the
history of ship-building- from the time of the earliest Egyptian
sculptures to the commencement of the art.

Nor does the interest of this inquiry confine itself to the
development of ship-building. As affecting the means of loco-
motion, it throws light on the development of other branches
of culture in early times. For even if we set aside exceptional
instances in which individual canoes have been driven away to
great distances — such as the case in which an Esquimaux in
his kayak was picked up off the coast of Aberdeen, or that of
a Chinese junk having been wrecked on the north-west coast
of America, which might or might not have produced permanent
results — and confine ourselves to those cases in which the dis-
tribution of like forms of vessels proves that there must probably
have been frequent communication between shore and shore ;
and if we further assume, as I propose to do, that the existing
means of communication in the Pacific in a great measure
represents the amount of intercourse that took place across the
sea in prehistoric times, that is to say, in times prior to the
earliest Egyptian sculptures, we find no difficulty in accounting,
by this means, for the striking similarity observable in the arts
and ideas of savages in distant lands ; for not only have these
vessels been the means of conveying from place to place the
material form of implements, such as celts, stone knives, and
so forth, which, being imperishable, have been handed down to
us unchanged, and the forms of which we know to have spread
over large geographic areas ; but also each voyage has conveyed
a boat-load of ideas, of which no material record remains, in
the shape of myths, religions, and superstitions, which have
been emptied out upon the seashore, to seek affinity with other
chatter that was indigenous to the place.

Thus, by means of intercommunication, no less than by
spontaneous development, have been formed those numerous
combinations which so greatly puzzle the student of culture at
the present time.

229

NOTES TO f EARLY MODES OF NAVIGATION '

P. 1S9. Steinitz, Tlie Ship : its Origin and Progress (London, 1849), PL ii

(frontispiece) : cf. pp. ix, 4.
Gregory, 'Expedition to the NW. coast of Australia,' Roy. Geogr. Soc.

Journal, xxxii. (1862) p. 376.
P. 190. Cook, Voyages (ed. London, 1842), vol. i. p. 201.
Kitto, Pictorial Bible, note on 2 Sam. xix. 18.

Pliny, ix. 10 (cf. vi. 24) ; Diodorus, iii. 21, 5 ; Strabo, p. 773 ; turtle-
shell boats were in actual use among the ' Turtle-eaters ' (Chelonopliagi)

of Carmania and the islands of the Ked Sea.
P. 191. Kalm, Travels into North America (London, 1771), vol. ii. pp. 38-9.

Raleigh's Expedition ; Amadas and Barlawe, The First Voyage to the

Coasts of America ( = Pinkerton (1811), vol. xii. p. 567).
Columbus, Tlie Journal of Cliristopher Columbus, &c. ; transl. Markham

(Hakluyt Society. 1893), p. 39, mentions dug-out canoes (cf. pp. 58, 94),

but not the use of fire.
Mouat, Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islanders (London, 1863),

pp. 315-6 ; only hand-hollowing in use in his time : no mention of Blair

here : perhaps a verbal communication to the author.
Symes, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava in 1795 (London,

1800), p. 320 ( = Pinkerton (1811), vol. ix. p. 500).
Turner, Nineteen Tears iti Polynesia (London, 1861). pp. 425-6.
P. 192. Wood, Natural History of Man (London, 1868-70), vol. ii. p. 732.
P. 193. Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition (Philadelphia, 1845), vol. ii.

p. 150 (Samoa) ; vol. v. p. 322 (Manilla) ; vol. v. p. 353 (Sooloo).
De Guignes, Voyages a Peking, Manille, et Vile de France (Paris, 1808),

vol. iii. p. 402.
De Morga, The Philippine Islands (1609) ; transl. by Hon. H. E. Stanley

(Hakluyt Society, 1868), p. 272 ; two types, (a) 'made of one very large

tree ' ; (6) ' also vireys and barangays . . . joined together with wooden

bolts.'
Symes, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, in 1795 (London,

1800), p. 320 ( = Pinkerton (1811), vol. ix. p. 500).
P. 194. Turpin, Hisioire de Siam (Paris, 1771), vol. i. pp. 34-6.
Pietro della Valle, Viaggi (Brighton, 1843), vol. i. pp. 602-3.
Duarte Barbosa (Magellan), A Description of tlie Coasts of East Africa and

Malabar (1514) ; transl. by Hon. H. E. Stanley (Hakluyt Society,

1866), p. 9.
Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London,

1857), p. 64.
Barth. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1857),

vol. ii. p. 469 ; the tributary is the Faro ; Yola is the adjacent town.
Grant, Walk across Africa (London, 1864), p. 304.
Condamine, M. de la, Relation abregee d'un voyage fait dans tinterieur de

VAmerique meridionale (Paris, 1745), p. 63 (at Laguna).
P. 195. Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862). vol. i. p. 169.

Bartram, Travels through N.and S. Carolina, Georgia, &c. (London,1792), p. 225.

Kalm, Travels into N. America (London, 1771), vol. ii. pp. 240-2.

Pliny, xvi. 40 Germaniae praedones singulis arboribus cavatis navigant, quorum

quaedam ettriginta homines ferunf.
Keller, Lake Dwellings of Switzerland (transl. by J. E. Lee, 2nd ed., 1S78),

p. 45, PI. x. 8.
Sir,W. Wilde, Catalogue of the Antiquities of the Museum of the Roijal Irish

Academy (Dublin, 1863), vol. i. pp. 202-4.
Ware, Hie Antiquities and History of Ireland (London, 1705), p. 47.
Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. pp. 153, 160.
P. 197. Cook, Voyages (London, 1842), vol. i. p. 193.

230 NOTES

P. 197. Barth, Travels (London, 1857), vol. ii. p. 469.

Byron, An Account of the Voyages undertaken . . . for making Discoveries in the

Southern Hemisphere . . . by Commodore Byron, &c, by John Hawksworth

(London, 1778), vol. i. p. 79.

P. 198. Duarte Barbosa, A Description, &c. (Hakluyt Society, 1866), pp. 14-15.

Denham and Clapperton, Travels in Northern and Central Africa (London,

1826), p. 60 (Denham).
Barth, Travels (London, 1857), vol. iii. p. 293.
Grant, Walk across Africa (London, 1864), p. 196.
P. 199. Cook, Foj/afires(1842), vol. i. p. 425 (Friendly Islands); pp. 95-7 (Otaheite).
La Perouse, Voyage autour dumonde (Paris, 1897), Atlas, No. 61.
Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition (Philadelphia, 1845),vol. i. pp.331-2
(Wytoohee) ; vol. ii. p. 157 (Samoa).
P. 200. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians (London, 1858), vol. i. pp. 71-6.
Wilkes, 1. c, vol. v. p. 52.

Wallace, The Malay Archipelago (London, 1869), vol. ii. p. 159 (the long

journey); p. 92 (nail-less boats); pp. 183-6 (the Ke islanders). [The

author's text has been amended to conform with the statements of

Wallace.— Ed.1

P. 201. Dampier, A New Voyage round the World (London, 1729), vol. i. p. 429.

Turpin, Histoire de Siam (Paris, 1771), vol. i. p. 36.
P. 202. Duarte Barbosa (Magellan), A Description, &c. (Hakluyt, 1866),
pp. 147-8.
Marco Polo, Travels, transl. by Sir H. Yule (London, 1903), vol. i. p. 108.
P. 203. Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia (London, 1735), p. 24.

Isaiah xviii. 2 ; see Kitto's Pictorial Bible, note on 2 Sam. xix. 18.
P. 204. Wilson, Prehistoric Man (1862), vol. i. p. 169.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson, The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt, 3rd ed.,

1878, vol.ii. p. 208, No. 403 (No. 399, 1st ed.).
Lucan, Pharsalia, iv. 136 Conseritur bibula Memphitica cymba papyro.
Plutarch, de Iricle et Osiride, 18.

Pliny, vii. 56 Nave primus in Graeciam ex Aegypto Danaus advenit : ante
ratibus navigabatur, inventis in Mari Bubro inter insulas a rege Erythra
(cf. ix. 10, and note on p. 190 above). Beperiuntur, qui Mysos et Troianos
priores excogitasse, cum transirent adversus Thracas. Etiam nunc in
Britannico Oceano vitiles corio circumsutae fiwnt : in Nilo ex papyro, et scirpo,
et arundine. [The quotation, as given in J.A.I. , iv. 414, is inaccurate. —
Ed.]
Huxley, Trans. Int. Congr. Preh. Arch., Norwich, 1868 (London, 1869), p. 92 ;
see also p. 147 above.
P. 205. Owen, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. iv. p. 240.

Rosellini, Monumenti deW Egitto e della Nubia (Pisa, 1834), Mon. Civ., PI.
cxix. 1, cxvii. 3 ( = Plate XV. 109-11 herewith).
P. 206. Prideaux ; Markham, A History of the Abyssinian Expedition, with a
chapter . . . by Lieut. W. F. Prideaux (London, 1869), p. 101.
Denon, Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte (London, 1807), vol. ii.

p. 72.
Belzoni , Narrative of Operations and Becent Discoveries . . . in Egypt and Nubia

(London, 1820), p. 62 ; (holds nine persons).
Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (London, 1790), vol. v. p. 6.
P. 207. Pliny, xiii. 2 refers to wooden boats; v. 2 to wickerwork : ibi Aethiopicae
conveniunt naves : namque eas plicatiles humeris transferunt, quoties ad catara-
ctas ventum est.
Belzoni, Narrative of Operations (London, 1820), pp. 380-1.
Pliny, v. 2 (above). Lucan, Phars. iv. 136 (above).
Herodotus, ii. 96. Wilkinson (Birch), 3rd ed., vol. ii. p. 307.
P. 208. Homer, Odyssey, v. 241-261. Smith, Diet. Gr. and Bom. Antiq., s. v.
' Navis.'
Nydam boat. Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron Age (London, 1866),

pp. 29-39, PI. i-iv.
Tacitus, Germania, 44.

NOTES 231

P. 210. Regnard, CEuvres (Paris, 1854), vol. i, Voyage de Laponie, pp. 51,100.
Outhier, Journal oVun Voyage au Nord, en 1736 et 1737 (Paris, 1744),

pp. 60-1.
Bell, Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to diverse parts of Asia (Glasgow,

1763), vol. i. p. 168 ff.
Atkinson, Oriental and Western Siberia (London, 1858), pp. 14-15.
P. 211. Belzoni, Narrative of Operations, &c. . . . in Egypt and Nubia (1820),

p. 62.
P. 212. Wilkes, U. S. Exploring Expedition (Philadelphia, 1845), vol. i. p. 127.
[Pritchard.]
Kalm, Travels into North America (London, 1771), vol. ii. p. 298.
Lahontan, Neio Voyages to North America (London, 1735), vol. i. pp. 26-9.
P. 213. Lane-Fox (Pitt-Rivers), Report of the British Association, Brighton, 1872
(London, 1873), p. 163.
Steinitz, The Ship : its Origin and Progress (London, 1849), PI. xvi. 6.
P. 214. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains (7th ed., London, 1848), vol. ii. pp. 381-2.
Cf. Herodotus, i. 194.
Lempriere, A Tour from Gibraltar to Tangier (London, 1793), p. 421.
P. 215. Herodotus, i. 194.

Kitto, Pictorial Bible, note on 2 Sam. xix. 18. Layard, 1. c.
Hamilton (Alexander),^. Neio Account of the East Indies, 1688-1723 (Edinb.
1727), vol. i. p. 88. They are described, even later, by Sir R. K. Porter,
Travels in Georgia, &c, 1817-20 (London, 1821-2), vol. ii. p. 260 ; and
figured in Bawlinson, Herodotus (1862), vol. i. p. 268, after Chesney,
Expedition for the Survey of the Euphrates and Tigris (London, 1850), vol. ii.
Buchanan, A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and
Malabar (London, 1807), vol. ii. pp. 121, 141, 151, 163.
P. 216. Cook, Voyages (London, 1842), vol. ii. pp. 303-4.

Frobisher, TJie Tliree Voyages of Martin Frobisher, ed. Collinson (Hakluyt

Society, 1867), p. 384.
Kerguelen, Relation d?un voyage dans la mer du Nord (Paris, 1771), pp. 178-9.
Kalm, Travels into North America (London, 1771), vol. ii. p. 241 ; iii. p. 16.
Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 148.
P. 217. Caesar, de Bello Civili, i. 54.
Lucan, Pharsalia, iii. 131-5.
Bellenden, The History and Chronicles of Scotland, &c. 1536 (Edinburgh, 1821),

vol. i. p. lix.
Sir W. Wilde, Catalogue . . . of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1863),

vol. i. p. 204.
Ulloa, A Voyage to South America, 1735 (London, 1807), vol. i. pp. 182-5.
P. 218. Bartolomew Ruiz. See Benzoni, Historia del Mondo Nuovo (Venice,
1572), p. 165 (figure) : reproduced in Benzoni (ed. Smyth : Hakluyt
Soc, 1857), p. 243 : cf. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America
(London, 1886), vol. ii. p. 508 (figure).
Condamine, M. de la, Relation abregee d'un voyage fait dans Vinterieur de
VAmerique meridionals (Paris, 1745), p. 30 (on the Maranon, not the
Chinchipe R.). 'Un expres que j'avois depeche" de Tupenda . . . avoit
franchi tous ces obstacles sur un petit radeau fait avec deux ou trois
pieces de bois, ce qui suffit a un Indien nud et excellent nageur, comme
ils le sont tous.'
Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 177.
P. 219. Bonwick, Daily Life of the Tasmanians (London, 1870), p. 51.

Williams, Fiji and the Fijians (London, 1858), vol. i. p. 76.
P. 220. La Perouse, Voyage autour du monde (Paris, 1797), vol. ii. p. 94.
Wilkes, U. S. Exploring Expedition (Philadelphia, 1845), vol. i. p. 331.
Cook, Voyages (London, 1842), vol. i. p. 425.

Wilkes, 1. c, vol. ii. p. 151 (Samoa) ; iii. pp. 365-6 (Fiji) ; v. pp. 11-12
(Bowditch Island).
P. 221. Dampier, A New Voyage round the World (London, 1729), vol. i. p. 215 (at
Guam in the Ladrones ; elsewhere he notes them ' only at Mindanao '
in the Philippines, pp. 298-300).

232 NOTES

P. 221. Pigafetta, Voyage round the World ( = Pinkerton (1811), vol. xi. p. 325).
Wilkes, U.S. Explor. Exped. (Philadelphia, 1845), vol. v. p. 52 (Kings-
mill Is.).
Dampier, A New Voyage, &c. (1729), vol. i. p. 298 (Kingsmill Is., and

Ladrones).
Baines, quoted in Wood, Nat. Hist, of Man (London, 1868), vol. ii. p. 8.
Cook, Voyages (London, 1842), vol. i. p. 425.
Wilkes, 1. c, vol. iii. p. 365 (Fiji) ; ii. p. 151 (Samoa).
P. 222. Wilkes, 1. c, vol. iii. p. 365 (Fiji) ; v. p. 52 (Kingsmill).
P. 223. De Guignes, Voyages a Peking, Manille, et Vile de France (Paris, 1808),
vol. iii. p. 402.
Dampier, A New Voyage round the World (London, 1729), pp. 298-300.
Symes, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava in 1795 (London,
1800), p. 223 (=Pinkerton (1811), vol. ix. p. 455).
P. 226. Wilson, Prehistoric Man (London, 1862), vol. i. p. 175.

Lahontan, New Voyage to North America (London, 1735), vol. i. p. 28.
Lloyd, Journ. Anthrop. Inst, vol. iv. p. 28.
P. 227. Wilkinson (Birch), Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (3rd ed.,
London, 1878), vol. ii. p. 219.

Oxford : Printed at the Clarendon Press by Horace Hart, M.A.

3 5002 00386 0918

GN 6 ,P6 1906

Pitt-Rivers, Augustus Henry
Lane-Fox, 1827-1900.

The evolution of culture